Unmasked
by nannodayo
Summary: Mission: Guard Hogwarts. Easy. Side mission, pushed on him by the Hokage: Take his mask off in front of Sasuke. Excruciating. ANBU!Sasuke & Naruto, Smart!Naruto, SasuNaru/NaruSasu. Yaoi.
1. A New Guard, A New Mission

_A/N: Thought I'd try writing my own (heavily clichéd) naruto + harry potter crossover for kicks. Tell me how I'm doing._

_Disclaimer: Do I even need to do this come on I hardly have the attention span to write a decent fanfic just read the story ok_

_Warnings: Yaoi/Slash/Shounenai/whatever you want to call it; OOC-ness (possibly oops)_

_Edited 8__th__ January 2012. Thanks to 'the nooge', who let me know that 'teme' doesn't mean 'bastard'. I honestly thought it did. Oops. Don't hate me, Japan._

**x**

**Unmasked: Chapter One: Obligatory Prologue: A New Guard, A new Mission**

**x**

What roused Harry from his usual nightmares about Cedric and Voldemort that morning was the impatient tapping of a barn owl's beak on his closed window. Forcing his tired, sore body upright, he rubbed at his eyes with one hand and blearily groped for his glasses with the other. He didn't really want to read whatever it said, as the only letters he's received so far were regarding the Dementor fiasco and the useless, yet periodic and somehow comforting messages from Ron and Hermione. It was due to this that, as he grudgingly took the small piece of parchment from the owl's leg, that he expected the same; either information-barren kindnesses or patronising and irritating warnings and reassurances.

It was due to this that the following message, lettered in purple ink and loopy handwriting, surprised him greatly:

'_Harry-_

_I am sending two guards to you tonight to take you to a safe location. They will be acting as extra security at Hogwarts this year. When they reach you, they will not speak any English. On arrival at your destination, kindly ensure that a translation charm is put on them. You will need to be packed for the year. Go with them – they may be strange, but they are trustworthy and more than capable. More will be explained to you over the coming days._

_Sincerely,_

_Albus Dumbledore.'_

**x**

On the one hand, Harry was elated. He was finally able to leave Privet Drive for another year, an occurrence that he had been awaiting with a dwindling amount of patience. He was sick to death of sitting around, not knowing what was happening. It was highly likely, to Harry, that whatever this 'safe location' was would also turn out to be the same place that Ron and Hermione were cooped up together.

Yeah, on the other hand, he was still royally pissed off. He hadn't heard anything of worth all summer, and nothing _at all _from Dumbledore himself, and yet the old wizard felt that it was fine to whisk him away whenever he so decided. As if to further irritate him, he had given away next to nothing in his letter – only that two foreign guards, who were to help protect Hogwarts, were picking him up and taking him Merlin knows where. Behind all of this was the lingering fear that, at his trial, he would actually be expelled, and be forced to live the rest of his life as a muggle.

With all of this running around his head, Harry spent most of the morning methodically packing all of his things. He supposed that, at the very least, it was good of Dumbledore to give him some warning in advance. Merlin knew that if he hadn't known, and the guards had shown up, he would be unprepared and the language barrier would be jarringly in the way of any form of coherent communication as to what the flip was going on, exactly, and why should I go with you anywhere?

Still, though. Harry was in a mood anyway.

**x**

Lying in the shade of a large oak tree in the park, in the hopes of escaping some of the heat, Harry wondered for the first time what the guards would be like, and where they were from. Where foreign wizards much different from British ones? From what he had seen at the world cup, the Bulgarian magical population was not too different from their own, but then again, there wasn't too much variance between most European countries. What was to say that they _were_ from Europe? The majority of people in the continent spoke at least basic English, so Harry decided that they must be from somewhere else. Where, though?

Slinking away from the park, as he'd heard Dudley's gang coming, Harry mulled over this question. Where, indeed? If all he had to go on was that they didn't speak English, they could be from almost anywhere. South America, Asia, the Middle East, Africa…there was no way to know. It struck Harry, not for the first time, how little he actually knew about the rest of the world. He'd only seen a tiny little part of it…what were other counties like? Harry had heard his classmates, when he went to a regular, muggle school, talking about the holidays that they had gone on. He had listened in the background, fascinated by the scenes that had been depicted, and longed to travel himself. What a dream _that_ would be, going wherever he wanted, leaving the Dursleys behind…

The closest he came to that was wandering the streets of Little Whinging.

He sighed, pushing the door to Number four, Privet Drive open as the sun set, hoping the guards would get there soon.

**x**

Rummaging through his trunk, making sure that he had everything that he needed, Harry almost had a heart attack when he heard the quiet, but distinct, "Potter-san?" from behind him. Spinning to his feet, twisting around and drawing his wand, Harry saw two masked men crouched on his bed, the curtains flapping silently in the breeze from the open window.

Their masks were white, and painted to look like animals, a fox and some kind of bird. He would have laughed at the childishness of them if it were not for the way that they had so easily entered a second-story window, or the way that they held themselves as they sat there. Their clothes covered all of their bodies except their shoulders – they wore black clothes, long black gloves and black boots, all of which was covered in some kind of white armour. On their exposed left shoulders, they had matching swirly red tattoos that reminded Harry uncomfortably of the Dark Mark. Underneath their black clothing, he could tell that every muscle in their bodies was tensed and alert; he would have been frightened by it if he didn't know what they were there for.

They had their hands up in a sign of peace, and Harry belatedly realised that they were waiting for an answer. Stowing his wand back in his pocket, he nodded, since he doubted they'd understand him if he said 'yes'.

Relaxing his posture, the blonde – the one in the fox mask – pulled a large scroll off of his back and unrolled it on the floor. There were all kinds of symbols and squiggles on it in black ink, and Harry stared openly at it, wondering what it was for.

Blonde-in-the-fox-mask gestured at the open trunk behind Harry, then at the scroll, and Harry took this to mean that he should move the trunk on to the scroll. He did so bemusedly, still ignorant as to the mystical scroll's true purpose. Fox-mask looked at him inquiringly, his head tilted to the side in a way that Harry took to mean, "Anything else?" Nodding again, Harry grabbed his Firebolt and Hedwig's cage, the latter of which he had finally taken the liberty to clean a few hours ago, and put them on top of his trunk.

While Black-hair-bird-mask watched out the window, his body on high alert, Blonde-fox-mask moved his hands in a series of signs so quickly that one blurred into the next. With a puff of smoke, the trunk, broomstick and cage were gone, and where there had been an empty circle in the middle of the scroll before, it now had another of those almost rune-like symbols in it. Trying not to freak out, Harry assured himself that they had probably transported his stuff to the 'safe location', and that it was just foreign magic, that's all, and why would they want to steal your stuff anyway?

When fox-mask slid the huge scroll back into its holder on his back, his black-haired partner said something quietly to him in a distinctly oriental language. Even though he had zero idea what was actually said, Harry could still hear the smirk in bird-masks' voice. The only response he got was a plaintive, "Teme!" The dazed wizard vaguely wondered if that was his name. If it was, it sounded like an orientalised version of 'Timmy', which, from what he had seen so far, didn't match his personality at all. Maybe not, then.

Bird-mask – Harry _would not _think of him as Timmy, it was too funny, and they were acting so serious – slid an envelope sealed with the Hogwarts crest through the crack under Harry's door. As he did this, Fox-mask took one of Harry's hands and put it on his shoulder. At a nod from Bird-mask, they both executed more of the weird hand signs in rapid succession, before the world turned to black.

**x**

When Harry opened his eyes – having squeezed them shut upon the realisation that _Merlin this is some form of apparition_ – Harry saw only puffy white smoke. Once it dissipated, he noticed that they were standing on a patch of grass in a small, unkempt square. All of the streetlights were out, and, by the light of the moon, Harry saw Mad-Eye Moody leaning against a post, one eye on his pocket watch, the other zooming around frantically.

"Professor Moody! What are you doing here?" he asked disbelievingly.

"Never mind that now," the former Auror replied gruffly, pulling something from one of his pockets and lighting his wand as he walked over. "Just read this, and memorise it, quickly."

In the wand-light, Harry saw that it was a slip of parchment, and he felt that he should recognise the thin handwriting that covered it.

It said, '_The headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix may be found at number twelve, Grimmauld Place, London. _

**x**

Inside the secret headquarters, Harry was seated in the basement kitchen overflowing with people. After many hurried greetings, he'd found himself in between Sirius and Mr Weasley at the long table. Along it sat the rest of the Weasleys (bar Percy, Charlie and Bill), Hermione, Mad-Eye Moody, a witch with bright pink hair that he was told was 'Tonks', Remus Lupin, Professor McGonagall, and, of all people, Snape. The two guards that had brought him there had been seated at the head of the table, and were talking in rapid Japanese, as he now identified it, in hushed voices.

Everyone quieted down once Snape asked the guards something – Harry couldn't tell you _what_, he was still laughing at a joke Sirius had told him. As he saw the blank stares they were giving him through their eye-holes, Harry remembered part of Dumbledore's letter.

"Erm, Professor – they don't speak English, Professor Dumbledore said that they need a translation spell put on them," Harry said nervously, as everyone turned to look at him. Many present seemed to wonder why this _kid_ was aware of that, yet no one in the Order had known.

His lip curling, Snape said silkily, "Very well, Potter," before turning to the masked men and drawing his wand. He had pointed it at Fox-mask first, but, before anyone could blink, both of them had leapt up from their chairs with strange, short knives in their hands. Sirius got up, too, a moment later, his hands held up in a placating manner.

"It's all right, we're not going to hurt you," he said slowly and calmly. "We just want to put a translation spell on you so we can communicate, okay?"

Though they must have had no idea what he was saying, his kind tone and body language gave them the message well enough. They sat carefully back down, eyeing Snape's wand warily. Sneering, and clearly frustrated that anyone would _dare_ object to him pointing his wand at them, Snape muttered a string of unintelligible words under his breath, moving his wand in an intricate pattern on front of Fox- and Bird-masks faces.

"You should be able to understand us now. That's what I was doing – a translation spell," Snape said, when he was finished.

"I see. I apologise that we reacted that way – you can understand, I'm sure, that it's generally unpleasant to have things pointed at you. Especially when you don't know their purpose," Bird-mask said in an emotionless voice that somehow carried through a trace of almost undetectable sarcastic intent. He sounded American, for some reason – though the translation spell probably didn't include accents.

Coughing lightly, Fox-mask pulled a scroll from his pocket – this one normal size, thank Merlin, _why_ they made scrolls as big as the one still on his back baffled Harry.

"Well, Grandma Tsunade – er, our Hokage – said that we should read this to you first."

'_To the Order of the Phoenix,_

_Albus Dumbledore has requested the aid if the shinobi in keeping his school safe from a powerful dark wizard. The castle and grounds will need to be patrolled and monitored on a regular basis. In order to do so, I have provided two of my best men from the elite ANBU black ops. As ANBU, they usually remain masked during their missions. However, Dumbledore-sama has requested that they do not do so, under the concern that it could frighten his students. _

_Dumbledore-sama has also said that they do not need to remain secretive, as is their nature. He informs me that seeing them around the school would reassure the students more so than if they were to remain in the shadows. There is also no need to use their ANBU code names; it is highly unlikely that anyone will recognise their names. Lastly, it is asked that they keep the full extent of their power hidden from the students._

_I am told that there will probably be doubts about the capability of my men due to their age. It needs to be understood that our society functions in a different manner than the magical one. The two that I have sent gave up their childhood at the age of twelve, and have probably been through more than every member of the Order put together. They are strong, and they will do their job – shinobi do what is asked of them to the best of their abilities, so trust in them._

_Sincerely,_

_Tsunade, Godaime Hokage of Konohagakure.'_

There were no complaints to the contents of the scroll, but Mrs Weasley felt the mother in her taking over.

"When she says 'due to your age'… how old are you?"

Bird-mask somehow managed to look irritated, even though you couldn't see his face. As one, he and Fox-mask removed their masks and set them on the table.

They were… not what Harry was expecting, to start with. Previously, all he knew of their appearances was that Fox-mask had bright blonde, almost yellow, spiky hair and was fairly tan. Bird-mask, on the other hand, had hair so black that it was almost blue, which stuck out at the back of his head, and skin so pale it seemed that he 'stayed in the shadows' a little _too_ much. The way that they had held themselves, along with the fact that both of them were supposed to guard the whole of Hogwarts by themselves, had led Harry to believe that they were very powerful and had heaps of experience.

Their faces, though… they were so _young_. They couldn't have been over twenty years old! The thing about Fox-mask (were they going to give their names?) that stood out the most to Harry was his eyes (_'Not gay at all, that did _not _sound gay…' _Harry thought to himself). He'd seen them before – bright blue, and sparkling with constant mirth; they were Dumbledore's eyes. His face was just as tanned as his shoulders, and on each cheek he had three lines (scars?) that were reminiscent of whiskers. He seemed good-natured, now that he'd removed the mask; something about him made you want to be his friend. However, he was presently eyeing the room's occupants warily, waiting for the protests that they couldn't _possibly_, and _what_ was Dumbledore _thinking_, they were only _children_. Harry felt a pang of sympathy for them.

Bird-mask was similarly cautious, his obsidian-black eyes narrowed at Mrs Weasley, challenging her to doubt him. To Harry, he was like a younger, far more attractive version of Snape; black eyes, black hair (albeit without the greasiness) and pale skin – he even carried some of the same arrogance that the Potions master did.

"I am eighteen, and he turns eighteen in October, but I fail to see how our age is of any consequence. It does not limit nor hinder our abilities, and, as stated by our Hokage, we stopped being children years ago, so I will thank you not to treat us as such," Bird-mask said coldly, before turning to his companion and peering at the scroll still in his hands. "Dobe, you missed the last bit," he said pointing at a few columns of symbols after what Harry took to be a signature.

"Hmm? Oh, right, thanks, teme," the blonde said, adding under his breath, "And quit pissing people off when we haven't even started the mission yet."

'_Teme', there it is again,_ Harry thought to himself. Maybe that was actually his name…? He'd called Fox-mask 'Dobe', too… _Weird names,_ Harry thought, tacking it up to cultural differences.

Bird-mask (Teme?) had taken the scroll, and was now reading the postscript aloud.

"_Brat_ – does she always call you that?" he asked curiously, his thin mouth twitching.

"Yeah, but only 'cause I call her old. Keep reading."

"_I have another mission for you and Uchiha, since you'll be gone for so long."_

"Uchiha?" Tonks broke in curiously.

"Ahh, we didn't give our names, did we? Sorry, we are not used to introductions while on missions," Fox-mask apologised, rubbing the back of his neck. If anyone found this strange, they decided not to comment on it.

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze," the newly named Fox-mask said, standing up and bowing shortly to the table. For some reason, this confused his black-haired friend greatly, and sensing this, Naruto shot him a look that said _'Later_'.

Following his example while still eyeing him suspiciously, Bird-mask said briskly, "Sasuke Uchiha."

Back in his chair, Sasuke continued reading.

"_I want the two of you to sort out whatever the hell it is that's bothering you. Kami knows I'll knock the two of you into next century if you're still dancing around each other when you get back." _Naruto blushed deeply at this, and Harry swore he saw a faint tinge of pink on Sasuke's cheeks too. "_And, Naruto, consider this an order from the Hokage herself – take that insufferable mask of yours off when you're around him, the poor boy deserves to actually know you. –Tsunade."_

Naruto yanked the scroll from Sasuke's hands, his eyes darting over the foreign text, checking that it really said that. When he was done, he cursed softly under his breath and shoved the scroll back into his pocket, saying, "That's personal, actually, don't worry about that. Grandma Tsunade's just looking out for Sasuke and I, that's all."

He said it in a cheery voice, but his slight scowl suggested that he was not happy with his boss for the 'mission' she had given them. Sasuke remained mostly unruffled, though he occasionally sent Naruto strange looks. In the following tense silence, Harry said weakly, "I could have sworn your name was Teme, actually – like Timmy, or something, since he kept calling you that."

Naruto burst out laughing and Sasuke just glared at Harry.

"No, my name is most definitely _not_ 'teme'. Only the dobe calls me that."

Naruto was still laughing, clutching Sasuke in his mirth. "Oh, Kami, Sasuke, I'm sorry but – he thought – this is too much – _Timmy_! Really!"

Sasuke was now alternating between glaring at Harry and glaring at his teammate.

"Oh, Potter…" Naruto said, grinning and wiping his eyes, "'Teme' is a really rude way of saying 'you' in Japanese. I've always called him that, and he calls me 'dobe'. It's like a habit."

"Dobe means 'dead last'," Sasuke added, his irritated glare having no effect on Naruto whatsoever. "He was at the bottom of our class at the academy."

"Hey!" Naruto protested, "I was twelve! Besides, you shouldn't talk that way about someone who can kick your ass!"

"If you're done chatting," Moody, who had been listening with growing impatience, said agitatedly, "How exactly do the two of you plan to guard a whole castle by yourselves?"

"It will depend slightly on the size of the castle, but we do have a general idea," Naruto started, reverting back to his former, serious self. "We'll be using shadow clones, summons, my chakra sensing abilities and Sasuke's Sharingan," he rattled off, getting a room full of blank stares.

"And are you going to explain what any of that _is_?" Moody growled.

"If you like. Shadow clones are solid copies of yourself – it's my specialty, I can make hundreds at a time, though it takes a lot of chakra to do."

"What exactly is this 'chakra'?" Tonks inquired curiously.

During the slight pause in which Naruto wondered how you could _not know _what chakra is, Sasuke answered for him. "The natural energy that runs through our bodies. Shinobi are capable of manipulating chakra to perform jutsu, like the shadow clone jutsu. Some people have more chakra than others – Naruto has an almost bottomless chakra reserve, which is how he can make so many clones without killing himself," he explained, a small trace of pride in his otherwise flat voice as he said the last sentence.

Nodding, Naruto continued. "Sasuke and I can both use the summoning jutsu to summon animals. Summoned animals are different from normal ones – they can talk, and they do whatever you ask as long as you have a contract. So, we'll be able to use some of them to go scouting, have them poke around a bit."

Professor McGonagall looked interested in that. "Can you summon any kind of animal? Or can you only summon one animal, like, say, dogs?"

"Usually it's just the one animal. I have a contract with the toads and Sasuke has a contract with the snakes, but I also have an, ah, _affinity_ with foxes – they all listen to me." At his teammates questioning look, Naruto added to him, with a wink, "Call it my bloodline."

At the mention of snakes, everyone became tense and started eyeing Sasuke suspiciously. It was dead silent for a few moments, before Naruto snapped at them, "Not everything to do with snakes is bad, you know. He's not with Voldemort," Everyone shuddered, except for Harry, Sirius and Lupin, "if that's what you were thinking. We'd never even heard of him until we got this mission, so calm down."

Once everyone had relaxed again, Naruto continued in a calm voice, as if nothing had happened. "I also have the ability to sense chakra over a pretty large area, so, depending on the area of the castle, I might be able to sense intruders. However, I hear you use 'magic'?" At the nods and murmurs of assent, he nodded sagely. "I don't yet know how that works or if the large amount of it present will affect my ability to sense chakra, but we'll see, I guess.

"The last thing was Sasuke's Sharingan. Sasuke?"

"The Sharingan is the Kekkai Genkai, the bloodline limit, of the Uchiha clan. The Sharingan is a dojutsu, an eye technique. It allows me to see things in far more detail than I can with my regular eyes."

Nodding again, Naruto turned to Snape and, bowing his head, asked, "Was there anything else you'd like to ask?" with an air of politeness that Harry was almost sure was sarcastic.

"Yes," Snape snapped, "Did the Headmaster say _where_ exactly you would be staying? Hogwarts is not a hotel, I hope you realise."

Ignoring the jibe, Naruto nodded honestly, replying, "Yeah, he said that he was – putting in another room in a tower?" he seemed a bit lost, and Sasuke prompted quietly, "Gryffindor tower, dobe."

"Oh, right, thanks, Sasuke. He's using magic to somehow make another room in Gryffindor tower. He said that it would be best if we stayed there, as any intruders are almost definitely involved with Voldemort, and would therefore target Gryffindor tower because Potter lives there. Dumbledore wants us to stay close just in case. Anything else?"

No one had anything else to say, so everyone who wasn't staying filed out. Sirius stayed behind, telling the guards that he'd take them to their rooms, and Harry, who wanted to know where his stuff had gone to.

"Oh, of course, sorry, Potter, I should have remembered – if we go to your room, I'll give it to you there," Naruto said, rubbing his neck again.

**x**

Naruto was unrolling the huge scroll part way on the floor of the room Harry shared with Ron, who had given a soft 'Bloody hell!' at the intricate symbols that covered it.

"I couldn't explain it earlier, obviously, but this is a storage scroll. It seals whatever you put on it inside, without adding extra weight. All out stuff's here, too, further down," Naruto explained to Harry, who was starting to think that maybe all this chakra stuff the guards knew how to do would be more effective than curses and jinxes.

Naruto pressed his hands together in another of the signs that Harry had last seen in his bedroom, and said loudly, "Release!" With a puff of smoke (_Did all of their magic involve smoke, _Harry wondered idly), his trunk, broomstick and Hedwig's cage were all back on the floor, just as Harry had set them down earlier that night. That done, he rolled the scroll back up, slid it back into place, and turned to leave.

"'Night, Potter, Weasley, see you tomorrow!" Naruto said with a bright grin.

"Er, you can call me Harry, you know," Harry suggested awkwardly.

"Yeah, same goes here – Ron, Ron Weasley," Ron joined in, still in awe of the wandless magic that he had seen.

"Ah, thank you! In our culture you call people you don't know very well by their last name, so sorry if I've offended you! Goodnight Harry, Ron!"

Another bright smile, a nod of acknowledgement from Sasuke, and the shinobi left to go to their room.

**x**

It was very similar to the room Harry and Ron shared, though it was a bit smaller, had a window and smelt less like mothballs. Sirius clapped them on the shoulders and said, "Well, here you go. Sorry that it's in a bit of a state, but the house hasn't been used in over a decade. If you need anything during the night, I'm upstairs, third on the left. Don't worry about waking me, I don't sleep much these days." Naruto and Sasuke nodded at this – both were frequently plagued by nightmares, though they would never complain about it.

"The bathroom is at the end of the hall. When you go to sleep, make sure to lock the door – Kreacher, the house elf, likes to pop in on people, and trust me, you don't want that. I think that's it."

At Naruto's 'Yep!' and Sasuke's 'Hn', Sirius walked out, lazily waving to them over his shoulder, saying, 'Night, guys.'

**x**

_A/N: Okay so I was going to keep going but I thought that I might not stop. If I've made any mistakes, let me know. Please please pretty please review. Please?_


	2. Introductions

_A/N: Wow you guys are amazing, thanks for all the interest, it keeps my fingers busy So I know I told some of you that it'd be up sooner than this – super sorry, by the way, I know, I suck – but my computer fucked up and deleted half of it when I was almost done. I'm seriously honestly going to try and update frequently, but I am the world's best procrastinator, so… maybe not…_

_Warnings: Language, innuendos, yaoi/shounenai/slash, pointless babbling._

_Disclaimer: Why are you even reading this I wrote a story not Harry Potter or Naruto so read it ok good._

**xx**

**Unmasked: Chapter Two: Introductions**

**xx**

After Sirius was gone, Sasuke closed the door firmly and rounded on Naruto.

"_Namikaze?_" He didn't really need to say anything else – Naruto knew what he was asking.

"Yes, Namikaze. I had it added to my name," he replied calmly.

"Any _why_ would you do that, dobe? You know Namikaze was -"

"My father's last name." An extremely tense silence followed this, during which Naruto silently pleaded Sasuke to believe him, and not to hate him for it.

Sasuke sat down at the foot of the bed on the left, rubbing his face wearily. Naruto was watching him warily, wondering what his reaction would be.

"So… So you're the Fourth's kid? Seriously? This isn't a dumb prank?" Sasuke asked resignedly, looking back up at Naruto.

"Yeah," the blonde replied, and, relieved, sat next to Sasuke. "But I didn't know until recently, I swear."

"Does anyone else know?"

"Well… Grandma Tsunade, of course – the Third did, too – Kakashi-sensei, and the Pervy Sage. I haven't told anyone else yet, 'cause I wanted to tell you first…" he trailed off awkwardly.

"I – I'm actually surprised, which is ridiculous. I mean, I always thought that maybe, with your hair, and the Rasengan thing, but to actually hear it…"

Naruto chuckled, startling Sasuke, whose head whipped up to look at him. "Yeah, I know what you mean. I always used to try and imagine who my parents were, but the only person I'd ever seen with hair like mine was the Fourth. I was always scared to believe it, after I found out about the Nine-Tails, because – I mean, because of that, my childhood was horrible, and for him to be my _Dad_, for my father to have caused all that…" Naruto's cerulean eyes were sparkling with tears that he would not shed, not again – that had happened enough, and Sasuke didn't need to see him cry.

Shifting uncomfortably, Sasuke asked, "What's about what the Hokage said? That stuff about a mask?"

"Ah…" Naruto rubbed his neck nervously, his eyes looking anywhere but at the black-haired shinobi beside him. "Well, you're probably going to hate me for this…"

"Naruto," Sasuke said softly, causing the blonde in question to look straight at him, his eyes widening slightly as he realised how close they were to each other. Faces inches apart, their breaths mingled for a moment before Sasuke continued.

"It would be very, very hard to make me hate you."

Naruto sighed in relief, smiling honestly at his best friend. "Uh… well, you know how bad the village treated me, right?"

"Hn."

"Well, it used to be worse. I couldn't go out at night because I'd get beaten up. It got really awful after I started at the academy. They were terrified that I'd get stronger – whenever I improved, I'd get dragged down an alley and beaten to a pulp."

"But… you never looked injured?"

"Kyuubi's influence – I've always healed really quickly, thanks to him. How else do you think I survived a Chidori to the chest?"

Sasuke gave an enlightened 'Hn,' and Naruto continued.

"After a while I noticed that I got beat up more after I'd learned something new, or passed a test. Even though I didn't fully understand it, I knew that if I was weaker, it wouldn't happen as much. So I started acting differently. I became a goofy, troublemaking idiot so that I wouldn't be seen as a threat. I made this kind of… alter ego, I guess, to be around other people. It was… kind of nice, though – it let me be more of a kid, and the villagers started ignoring me instead of trying to kill me."

"They tried to kill you?" Sasuke asked, half angry and half shocked.

Naruto shrugged it off. "Yeah, I mean, if I die, so does Kurama. Anyway, don't you think you're being a bit hypocritical?"

Letting the jab slide, the raven asked curiously, "Kurama? It has a name?"

Naruto scoffed. "Duh. Wait, you mean to tell me that _your_ name _isn't_ 'human'?" he teased, faking shock.

"Tch. Dobe. Hang on," his eyes narrowed, "Are you saying that everything that I know about you is a lie?"

He looked pissed.

_Shit_.

Naruto gulped, hastening to rectify the situation. "No, not at all, I mean, not really – mostly I just overdid everything and exaggerated a lot, and I'm a lot stronger than you think, but seriously! I'm basically the same! I'm just stronger, smarter, gay, and less annoying!"

Sasuke was smirking evilly.

_Crap. Well, at least it means he's not angry, that's good, right? Oh, shit, it's _that_ smirk… Maybe it would be better if he was angry…_ Naruto thought frantically, eyeing Sasuke's expression as if it were a bomb about to go off.

"What was that, dobe? You're gay?" he said, his voice deep and husky. He shifted closer to Naruto, his gaze half-lidded and sultry.

Naruto was _totally_ going to kill Tsunade for this.

…He was going to kill _himself_ for this. He hadn't _needed _to say he was gay. _Why_ did he say he was gay? Did he _have_ a death wish? Naruto _knew_ Sasuke was gay – he had a horde of fangirls, and he never once hooked up with _any _of them, so he was either homosexual or really picky. He also knew that Sasuke was a _huge_ closet pervert. He was the young, gay version of Jiraiya. No, scratch that, he was _worse_. The Pervy Sage was innocent compared to Sasuke. He never did or said anything, of course – it must be in the Uchiha rule book not to or something – but Naruto could tell. It was like he was waiting for something; as if all of the perverted thoughts that ran through Sasuke's head were being stored up for use at a later date. He could often see the twisted thoughts forming behind the peat-black eyes, practically _hearing_ him cackling at what he was thinking just by seeing _that _smirk.

…The one he was wearing right now.

Naruto was experiencing the same kind of fear he got when Sakura looked like she wanted to hit him. So he acted accordingly.

He _babbled_.

"Well, I mean, I was with the Pervy Sage, right, and after a few years of him, I _never_ wanted to see another female in an indecent position again. Seriously, you wouldn't _believe_ some of the things I've walked in on – why _anyone_ would want to do that crap with the old pervert, I have no idea, but he's traumatised me for life! So, I mean, after that I thought, 'Well, may as well see if I'm interested in guys'. Turns out I am, what do you know! Guys are better anyway, don't you think, Sasuke?"

The Uchiha was laughing at him. Well, not _laughing_, but as close to laughing as he ever got – his shoulders were shaking and the corners of his mouth were twitching upward.

"Hmph. Teme," Naruto said, crossing his arms and pouting.

Naruto was just unrolling the storage scroll again, trying to ignore the smug smirk his bastard of a best friend was giving him, when he heard Harry shouting at his friends. Their advanced hearing, as shinobi, was proven unnecessary by the volume of the angry wizard's yells. He was almost certain that even the wizards in the house, whose hearing was probably as average as a civilian's, could hear his loud accusations.

"Should we –"

"No."

"But, teme, they're –"

"No."

"Sasuke~"

Sasuke sighed heavily. "Dobe, I know you like to fix other people's problems, or whatever, but it's none of our business."

"Tch, bastard."

**xx**

If you listened, you could hear the muffled squeals coming from the bedroom that Hermione and Ginny were sharing. Ginny was lying down on her bed, face buried in her pillow and her legs kicking wildly in her excitement. To an outsider, she might have been having some kind of fit. The only indication that this wasn't the case was the almost one-sided conversation she was having.

Ginerva Weasley, at the tender age of fourteen, had fallen into a dream. A dream full of mysterious, powerful, absolutely _gorgeous_ foreign guards, who would be spending the year living in close proximity to her.

In her opinion, there was no way it could get better. She spent a good ten minutes trying to impress upon Hermione just how _wonderful_ the situation was before her bushy-haired teammate could get her to go to sleep.

**xx**

Hermione, on the other hand, was wondering how to coerce them into telling her everything about where they were from and the kind of magic that they practised. The little that she had gleaned of their abilities left her desperate to know more. She felt that anything she could learn from them would be extremely useful when fighting against Voldemort. To be able to create solid, functioning copies of yourself… She fell asleep to the soothing prospect of new knowledge.

**xx**

The next morning, Mrs Weasley sent Fred and George to wake the two shinobi. In hindsight, she recognised it as a lapse of judgement on her part.

The twins had apparated loudly in, piping cheerily, "Morning! Rise and shine!" in the perfect synchronisation that only they could achieve.

Naruto jolted upright immediately, his blankets falling away from his bare chest to pool around his boxer-clad hips, yelling frantically, "I'm up, I'm up! Don't hit me, Sakura-chan!"

Sasuke, in a similar state of dress, sat up more slowly, dragging a hand over his face. "Don't tell me you're _still_ scared of her, dobe."

Fred and George had identical expressions of glee at the outburst. They bound over to Naruto's bed, sitting on either side of him and each throwing an arm over his shoulders. "Who's this then, eh? Got a big, scary, muscly girlfriend back home?"

Naruto snorted, and, ignoring Sasuke's mumbled 'He wishes', replied. "Sakura, she's an old friend and team mate of mine and definitely _not _my girlfriend. And Sasuke, you obviously haven't become acquainted with her fist since you got back. It's been _dying_ to have a good chat with your face."

The black-haired shinobi scowled at his friend's lopsided grin. In his opinion, no one should look that happy when his poor face was threatened like that. In truth, he had been avoiding Sakura ever since he overheard her telling Ino just exactly what he was going to do to him when she saw him. He had been through a lot, but the torture that had been verbalised that day left him slightly terrified of the pink-haired kunoichi. In any case, he had kept himself busy and out of her range by doing missions, training with Naruto and holing himself up in the dobe's apartment. "I…haven't really given her the chance, to be honest."

"Well, lads, Mum's starting breakfast soon, so you might want to get to it." And then they left, snickering quietly.

**xx**

Breakfast that morning was the liveliest that Grimmauld Place's kitchen had seen all summer. The two guards had been told that this mission was a relaxed one – one during which they were allowed to drop the calm, emotionless façade that ANBU members usually had. The mission hadn't started yet, so instead of their ANBU uniforms, the two shinobi had opted to wear the stanadard jounin attire. Naruto was all too happy to talk to the houses occupants whenever they were nearby. Sasuke, so far, appeared to be acted the way he always did in public – surly and antisocial.

Grouped around one end of the table were the two shinobi, the twins, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny and Sirius, and while they ate, they kept up an interesting conversation. All of the wizards were curious to hear about the Hidden Nations, and Naruto was all too happy to give them a detailed description of the different lands there. Travelling with Jiraiya had given him extensive knowledge on most countries. Of the people there, Hermione and Sirius seemed to be the only ones genuinely interested in what he was saying. Harry listened now and then, but every few minutes he found his attention straying back to his bacon. Ron was slightly in awe of the blonde in front of him, as well as the scenes he was verbally depicting. Ginny was practically drooling as she failed not to stare at him, her imagination in overdrive and her toast forgotten.

While Naruto spread some jam on a piece of toast, Sasuke spoke from beside him for the first time since they'd entered the kitchen.

"They're going to think it's all sunshine and rainbows from the way you tell it, dobe," he muttered quietly.

Naruto eyes shifted to look at him sideways for a moment before shrugging and continuing with his toast. "It basically is, now that everything's calmed down. I don't see any point in bringing up the past."

"Hn." Sasuke supposed that he probably would have done well to adapt the same mentality years ago. Ever since the massacre, all of his actions, his whole life, was spent on trying fruitlessly to rectify an event that he could never change. Through everything, though, there had been one thing, one _person,_ who was able to make him feel normal. Naruto had been there, since the day at the pier, challenging him, pushing him and annoying him. Every fight that they shared had, in the strange, perverse way that only strong rivals like them could manage, made him stronger. He rarely fought with as much vigour as he did with Naruto, and, as much as he had always insulted him, he had seen that the blond idiot was strong in his own way. Naruto had made him feel grounded, real, _alive, _and he was still pissed off at himself for not becoming closer to him when he'd had the chance. In hindsight, he wondered why it took so much for him to see that he was being an absolute idiot. In the end, Itachi hadn't even been the murderer. Since he had returned, dragged by his ear by Naruto, to the Hidden Leaf Village, he and his brother had formed a tentative relationship, but only after the blonde next to him had sat him down, told him to get his head out of his ass, and shoved him into the same room as Itachi. Sasuke was relieved to see that his brother, for the most part, remained the same as he was before the incident all those years ago.

Naruto had somehow become a bit of an enigma to Sasuke. He had known, no matter how much he hadn't wanted to believe it, that before he left, Naruto had been stronger than him. The jinchuuriki probably could have killed him a number of times, had he wanted to. As if that wasn't enough, he reveals that he's secretly _even stronger_, not to mention smarter. Just how powerful had he become? Sasuke had no idea. The part of it all that was causing his poor, confused brain the most grief was the fact that the blond still retained a cheery, dorky personality, the mysterious ability to make friends everywhere he went, and the same alarming positivity that he'd had when they were twelve. By all accounts, given his past, Naruto should have been quiet, broody and negative, but his nature had always prevented that.

Sasuke wondered if the Fourth Hokage had been the same; if he had been as confident and self-assured as his son; if he was able to calm everyone down, lift their spirits through a single grin and a cheery promise. The Fourth Hokage had been especially popular – maybe that's where Naruto got it from.

He was sucked back to the present by the sound of Naruto's voice. He turned to him, scowl in place for the interruption of his idle curiosities.

"Back home, then? Way to space out, teme, I was talking to you."

"Hn. What do you want?" Sasuke was irritated with himself for drifting off like that – the mission may not have started, but he wanted them to see that shinobi are as capable (_More capable, _he thought mutinously to himself) as wizards – and the way to do _that_ was not by daydreaming. Sasuke cursed Naruto out internally – the blonde dork was the only one who could have _that_ effect on him.

"I asked you what you wanted to do today." Since they weren't actually needed until they got to the school, they had no duties to perform, watches to take, or areas to scrutinise. This left them with an unexpected amount of free time, and they did not particularly want to be idle.

Sasuke shrugged, making a vague noise through the tea he was drinking. "Don't know. Train? We could spar for a bit."

Naruto's face lit up like a child on Christmas at the mention of training (_Some things never change_, Sasuke reflected dryly), but it quickly fell, to be replaced with a serious look tinged with concern.

"No, we can't, you were on a mission right before you came and you didn't get much sleep last night."

Sasuke rolled his eyes towards the ceiling. Neither of them had gotten much sleep last night, due to the jetlag from being instantly transported into another time zone. However, if he brought that up, Naruto was either not going to admit that he'd had a rough night, or grin and shrug it off like it was nothing – although he could get away with less sleep than regular people, so maybe it was nothing to him. Sasuke had recently learned that Naruto could be as much of a worry-wart about his health as Sakura was, and that trying to argue against his mother-hen ways caused more pain than it was worth.

"What do you suggest we do, then, dobe?"

Naruto just shrugged, turning to the group that they were seated with, a bright smile on his face. "What are you guys up to today," he asked innocently.

"Mum's making us help with the cleaning," Ron answered, a slight whine in his voice.

"Cleaning?" Naruto perked up, "Cool! We'll help too, ne, Sasuke?"

Sasuke stared at him blankly. In all the years that he had known Naruto, he would never have expected _that _response.

"Naruto…" he said slowly, as if trying to convince a very slow person of a simple fact, "You don't like cleaning."

"Hm? Sure I do, Sasuke. Mask, remember?" he said brightly, grinning disarmingly.

Sasuke sat back in his chair. _This is going to be harder than I thought_, he mused silently. He had been prepared to accept that some aspects of his best friend were _slightly_ different than he had thought – that was the way said friend had made it seem, anyway. And because it was _Naruto_, he had to be – _Naruto_ was why he had come back, _Naruto_ was why he hadn't killed himself after killing Itachi, _Naruto_ was the reason he could smile again, and without _Naruto _life was dark and empty. It still hit him hard, though – he felt slightly betrayed (_You fucking hypocrite, _he snarled at himself, _You're lucky he still _looks_ at you, never mind anything else_) and hurt that the one person that he trusted the most would hide his true self from him – he would never say that, though, because he would not be able to bear the look in Naruto's eyes if he did. As he'd tossed and turned through the night, he had resolved to carry on as usual, give nothing of how he truly felt away, watch Naruto more closely to try to understand who he _actually_ was, and attempt not to look surprised whenever he found something new.

The latter was the hardest as he sat there, in the kitchen at Grimmauld Place, with a positively charming smile aimed straight at him.

He had seen Naruto smile before, obviously. It seemed like he was _always _smiling. But he didn't think that he had ever seen a smile quite like the one presently held on the tanned face.

Naruto had a lot of smiles – Sasuke had learned this fairly early. There was the 'I'm not okay but I'll tell you I am anyway' – that one had been used like it was going out of fashion before he had left. He also had his 'Good Guy' smile, which was donned when making his ridiculously frequent promises. Then there was – and Sasuke secretly enjoyed this one – the 'You're going down' grin – which was more enthusiasm than happiness, but it was still more genuine than many of his others.

The ultimate one, though, was only seen by Sasuke when the two of them were alone – mostly after they had been training together (read: trying to kick each other's ass), and they lay at the foot of a tree, or in the middle of a field, both sweaty, tired, and, more often than not, bruised and bleeding – it was his favourite. Naruto would turn to him, during the silence between conversations, and _smile _from the bottom of his heart. It was the smallest of all his smiles, but it held the most meaning. His lips would slowly curve upward, his eyes slightly narrowed and sparkling with pure, unadulterated _joy_. It made Sasuke's heart stop, race and burst with happiness simultaneously. It made his own facial muscles uncontrollable, too, and they would form a responding smile, and the two would lie there, smiling because they were happy.

This one was different, though – it was the kind of smile that made hormone-driven girls swoon, that you gave to someone you'd just met, that you gave when you were trying to win people over. And Sasuke –

He looked away, mortified by the heat in his cheeks. "Hn."

- _And Sasuke wanted to see it again._

**xx**

At first, Molly Weasley had not wanted to accept the offer of help from the two shinobi. She had protested, saying that there was no need, they were guests, and it was fine, really, they'd get on as they were. But Naruto had insisted (Sasuke had stood behind him, letting him do talking), flashing the new (to Sasuke, at least) charming smile of his, and leaving her no choice but to gratefully accept their help, and admit that there really _was_ a lot to do, and it was very nice of them to help out.

As they rose file out of the kitchen, Naruto paused thoughtfully. "Oh, I almost forgot…" he muttered, hands drifting to perform his signature jutsu. Two clones popped into existence with a cloud of smoke.

At Sasuke's inquiring glance, he said simply, "I've got a scroll to read." Having noticed the tone in his friend's voice that told him not to ask more questions, he just nodded, and they continued to the door, Naruto's clones trailing behind him. As he threw his gaze back, he belatedly noticed that every wizard in the room was gaping wordlessly at him.

Naruto turned and shifted awkwardly, saying, "Ah… I'm going to have to explain this now, aren't I?"

Several people nodded dumbly. Naruto sighed.

"It's just… Okay. Look at it like this: you guys use magic, right? You do who-knows-what with it – well, we do the same with chakra, which Sasuke explained last night."

"B-but you didn't use a wand!" Hermione stuttered out, awestruck at the display.

"Hmm… Well, I don't know exactly how those 'wand' thingies work, but I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that you use them to channel your chakra – that is to say, magic – in the same way that we use hand signs to channel our chakra. They're just different methods," Naruto explained, his eyes glassing over as he pondered the inner mechanisms of 'magic'.

"Well, maybe, but magic can't make whole people out of thin air!" Ron exclaimed.

Naruto blinked at him, slightly confused. "It's not 'out of thin air'. Shadow clones are made using large amounts of chakra, and, for most people, it's exhausting."

"Most people?" Harry asked. "What, are you special or something?"

"Uh…" Naruto said sheepishly, scratching his whiskered cheek, "Well, yeah, kind of. I have way more chakra than most people, so it doesn't take that much out of me to make a few."

Sasuke snorted, knowing that, in this circumstance, Naruto's definition of 'a few' was really 'less than one hundred'. No one needed to know that, though – they looked like they were on the verge of worshipping him already, and it irritated Sasuke, though he couldn't tell you why. _Maybe this was how he always felt around me_, Sasuke wondered vaguely, not really caring what the answer was but curious nonetheless.

Before anyone could ask another question (Hermione looked like she had so many that she was about to burst), Naruto said loudly to Mrs Weasley, "Anyway, what room are we cleaning first?"

This seemed to snap everyone out of their daze (which was his intention, no doubt), and they continued with what they were doing previously.

"The – the drawing room, dear," Mrs Weasley answered weakly, and they all left to do so.

**xx**

_A/N: I have a problem writing long chapters – deal with it._


	3. Culture Shock

_A/N: WOW OMG WHO PUT THIS IN THE 'BEST NARUTO FIC _EVER!_' COMMUNITY SERIOUSLY I LOVE YOU XOXO_

_I, like, screwed up a bit in the last chapter. I wrote, "…after he'd killed Itachi", when, in the first chapter, I'd said that he was alive. Oops. Fix'd it so that it read "…after he _thought_ he'd killed Itachi." Itachi just miraculously survives somehow, don't ask._

_Disclaimer: I only own this crap-ass fic_

**xxx**

Once in the drawing room, Mrs Weasley turned in a slow circle, eyeing the decrepit room thoughtfully, muttering to herself. Everyone else milled about her quietly, awaiting instruction.

"Right," she said at last, turning to them with her hands on her hips, "I would've liked to get the cobwebs on the ceiling, and give it a good scrub, but I don't have a ladder, so I suppose we'll start with - "

"Sasuke and I can get the ceiling," Naruto cut in helpfully.

"Oh – well, you _could, _surely, but like I said, there's no ladder around here, so it'll get done another day," Mrs Weasley responded patiently.

"We won't need a ladder," Naruto said simply, smiling happily.

"What do you _mean, _you don't need a ladder?" Ron asked loudly, verbalising what everyone in the room was thinking. "I mean, you might be great ninjas or whatever, but I'm pretty sure that even you guys can't - "

"Weasley," Sasuke called down, standing on the ceiling with his arms crossed, "We don't need a ladder."

There were several different reactions to this. Mrs Weasley gaped, Harry and Ron spluttered in their confusion, Hermione looked like she was going to forcibly make them teach her everything they knew, Ginny had stars in eyes, and the twins looked at each other and said, in perfect sync, "Wicked." Naruto snickered.

"Right," Mrs Weasley said faintly, "Then I'll just – I'll just go and get the things for that, then. Back in a minute," she assured them, before drifting out the door like she didn't realise that she was walking.

Once she was gone, Naruto found himself being accosted by an enthusiastic Hermione.

"How do you do that? I mean, it _could _be an anti-gravity spell, but you're not wizards, so there's no way - "

"Basic chakra control," Sasuke cut her off grumpily, sensing that if he let her keep talking, she'd go on for a while.

Naruto shot Sasuke a quick reprimanding glare before answering the poor girl properly. "It's easy, Granger. You just concentrate your chakra in your feet, and it kind of… sticks you to whatever you're standing on."

Hermione looked fascinated at that. "Can anyone learn to do that?" she asked eagerly, and Ron drifted over, curious.

"Ah, well," Naruto started, averting his eyes from her honest face so that he didn't have to view the disappointment there. "No, not really. Some people are incapable of controlling chakra, like Bushy Brows. But everyone here has so little chakra that, really, just doing something like that would be exhausting for you." He frowned slightly, his sky blue eyes glazing over in thought. "Say, Granger…?" he asked slowly, "Can I see your wand for a minute, please? I won't do anything to it."

"Oh! Erm, sure," Hermione agreed, surprised. She dug through her pocket for a moment before producing a length of wood. "Uh, you can just call me Hermione, if you like," she offered timidly.

Naruto, who was running his tanned fingers over the wood, looked up and met her brown eyes with his own mildly surprised blue ones. "Hmm? Oh, sure, then, Hermione. Everyone seems to say that here," he mused thoughtfully. "Maybe I should call people by their first name in the first place…? Maa, customs are weird," he concluded, frustrated.

"Anyway," he huffed out, holding the wand out to Sasuke, who was standing to the left of him, "Give this a look and tell me what you see."

Understanding what he meant by that, Sasuke activated his Sharingan, giving the wand a once over. Hermione and Ron squeaked in surprise – they were starting to get sick of being surprised, really, couldn't these guys just act _normal_?

"Blimey," Ron said faintly, "Mate, your – your eyes - "

Sasuke heaved an irritated sigh. "It's my Sharingan, the bloodline of my clan. We explained this last night." Turning his attention away from the two bewildered wizards and back to Naruto with an air of finality, he continued.

"Given that you're asking," he started, running his eyes over the wand before looking up at his partner, "I'm guessing that you already have an idea." It was a question without really being a question, yet another thing that Sasuke was proficient in.

"Yeah," Naruto nodded, "I was thinking that it might behave in the way that chakra blades do, but for magical energy. What d'you reckon?"

"You're on to something," he murmured, taking the wand and turning it in his fingers. "The _wood _behaves like the metal of a chakra blade, but the core controls the nature of the magic." Finished with his analysis, he handed the wand back to Hermione. "Why are you asking, dobe?"

Naruto shrugged easily, saying "I was curious."

"So," Hermione said curiously, eyes bright, "Are you saying that your magic is similar to ours?"

"Not magic," Naruto corrected, "But, yeah, a little. I don't know enough at the moment to say for sure. Do you have any books on magic that I could borrow?" he asked, a thoughtful look on his face.

"Oh, yes, of course!" Hermione agreed happily. "I can give them to you later. But I have a lot, so what are you interested in?"

They talked for a few minutes more, Naruto glad that someone was being friendly and helpful and Hermione thrilled that she had an excuse to have prolonged exposure to the gorgeous blonde, if only so that she could rub it in Ginny's face later.

**xxx**

Mrs Weasley returned not much later, and everyone bar the shinobi set to work on eradicating the doxy population that resided in the old, ratty curtains. Fred and George were trying to steal the doxies, and Ginny was helping them. Harry, Ron and Hermione were quietly discussing what they'd seen.

"I mean, look at them!" Ron was saying in a quiet, awestruck voice. "Standing on the _bloody ceiling _like it's always been the floor! And earlier, that blond guy _cloned himself! _Twice! Like it was no big deal!"

"It isn't!" Naruto called from the ceiling cheekily, having heard everything he'd said. "I've been able to do it since I was twelve!"

Sasuke rolled his eyes lazily, drawling, "You had to steal a forbidden scroll to do it, idiot. That's nothing to be proud of."

"Hey – hey! Come on! I was set up! Can't a guy get a break here? That was a very traumatic night for me," he grumbled unhappily.

While they proceeded to bicker, Ron turned fearfully towards Harry and whispered, "_How did he hear me?"_

"Shinobi senses!" Naruto called happily, dodging the soapy scrubbing brush thrown his way.

**xxx**

Naruto and Sasuke finished cleaning the ceiling thoroughly before everyone else had eliminated the poor, unsuspecting doxies from the ancient curtains. Naruto was occupying himself by studying the Black family tree tapestry, and Sasuke was next to him, looking bored (not that that was a change), and making sure that he didn't break anything.

"Hey, Molly?" Naruto called after a short, pensive silence.

"Hmm? Yes, dear?" she asked, looking away from the curtains and walking over to him.

"Why are there parts that are blasted off?" he inquired innocently, one tanned finger gesturing towards the spot where Sirius' name used to be.

Harry, frowning, added, "Yeah, I was wondering about that too."

Everyone else, having thrown the last few doxies into the buckets, were listening with interest. Mrs Weasley's brow furrowed in thought as she looked over the tapestry, considering the question. "To be honest, I don't really know, but I expect that it's where members of the family have been disowned. It'd be best to ask Sirius, really, as it's his family." Wiping the thin sheen of sweat from her brow, she continued, to the room at large, "Anyway, it's time for lunch, so I'll just go get something if you lot wait here for a bit."

When she had gone, Naruto flopped down into an armchair, closed his eyes, crossed his legs and stayed perfectly still, while the wizards were distracted by the Order members filling the hall below. Sasuke sighed exasperatedly. "Dobe, what are you doing?"

Naruto cracked a blue eye open in frustration as he replied simply, "Gathering nature energy. Shh."

A moment later his eyes had an orange ring around the edges, his irises turned yellow and his pupils were horizontal rectangles. After a few seconds of concentration, he gave a disappointed sigh and shook his head sadly.

"It's no good, teme. We're in the middle of a huge city. There isn't a proper forest anywhere near here."

Sasuke frowned ever so slightly at that news. "Really? So… we can't train, then."

"Mmm," Naruto murmured unhappily.

"What made you check?"

"Hmm? Oh, my clones released themselves. They figured out the scroll." The jinchuuriki sighed dramatically. "And I _so _wanted to practice that jutsu." At that he threw and arm over his eyes and sunk into his seat.

"What's the jutsu?" Sasuke asked curiously.

Sitting up, Naruto answered seriously, "It's an S-Class secret." Sasuke scowled, but then Naruto grinned broadly and chirped, "But I can tell _you_."

"You can, can you?" The older shinobi mused, sitting on the arm of the blond's chair, gazing down at him. "Isn't Tsunade afraid that I'll steal it and run off to enslave the world with the moon?" he asked seriously. They stared at each other for a moment before Naruto laughed happily, his eyes crinkling in his joy.

"No way! Madara was the only one on enough crazy enough to even think about that, teme, and you're not him," Naruto assured him, smiling up at his friend. "Besides," he added as an afterthought, "We dealt with him, so even if you _are _intending to do that, we'd be able to handle you."

"I'm so glad you think so," Sasuke said dryly. "The jutsu, Naruto – what is it that it's such a big secret?"

"Right, right – it's my Dad's signature jutsu, you know the one?" the blond said quietly.

Inwardly, Sasuke was gaping at him, spluttering in his bewilderment. Outwardly, he remained as stoic as ever, the only sign of his shock the slight widening of his eyes.

"What?" he asked quietly as Mrs Weasley re-entered with food, causing all of the others to swarm around her. "You're learning _that_?"

"Mm hmm," Naruto nodded, hopping up from his chair. "But we can talk about it later. Let's eat!"

"Right…" Sasuke agreed slowly, trailing behind Naruto in a slight daze, his thoughts a confused whirlwind. He had known for quite a long time that the other boy was incredibly powerful, but this was just… It hit him, right at that moment, that Naruto was not only the strongest candidate for the Rokudaime Hokage, but also that he was going to be, in the future, a legendary figure even greater than his father before him and all of the Sannin put together. He stared at the blond, spiky head in front of him, and he felt particularly – small? weak? insignificant? – almost as if, no matter what he did, he would never quite be able to match up to him.

In the past, that fact would have pissed him right off, and he would go on a 'I'm-not-strong-enough' rampage. However, since coming back to the village and spending time with Naruto and Itachi, his personality, beliefs and perspective had gone through a complete catharsis. Presently, all it really did was increase the already large amount of admiration for the blond.

They both took a sandwich from the tray, telling Mrs Weasley gratefully, "Thank you for the food."

"Dude!" Naruto exclaimed, "English is so weird! It's like, an entire sentence!"

"What do you want it to be?" Harry asked, not impolitely.

Naruto rubbed the back of his head contemplatively. "Oh, it's just that in Japanese, that whole sentence is just one word. It's strange, huh?"

"But how do you still – Didn't the spell that Snape put on you translate everything from your language to English?" Harry wondered curiously.

"Nah," Naruto said, swallowing a mouthful of sandwich. "It kind of just… shoved the entire English language into our heads, in front of Japanese so that we'd use it as the default. The Japanese is still there, though – I haven't _forgotten _the language that I've used my whole life, if I had, that's be really annoying – but if I push just past the English in my head my original language is there. It's pretty weird, actually," he continued, laughing, "One hell of a genjutsu, na, Sasuke?"

"Hn," Sasuke grunted, "I've never seen anything like it. That's to be expected, though, given that our whole continent speaks the same language and this is the first time that I've left."

"Hang on," Harry interrupted, "Your _continent? _I thought you were from Japan?"

"Oh, no," Naruto said, "Our continent is a pretty small one to the south-east of Japan. We just speak Japanese."

"I never knew there was a continent there," Harry muttered, before –

"But ninja's are from Japan, aren't they?" Ron asked, loudly and ignorantly.

Sasuke gave an irritated 'hn.' "Originally, yes, but due to conflicts, they created their own continent and set up the society that we live in today," he explained snappily.

"Mmph, yeah, wha' 'e said," Naruto agreed, his voice muffled by bread.

"Well, that's news to me," Sirius said, having just arrived in the room carrying a slightly bloody sack. He swung the sack into a chair, waltzing over to where Harry, Ron and the shinobi were talking.

"I've been feeding Buckbeak," he said in response to Harry's inquiring glance. "I keep him up in my mother's bedroom."

"Who's Buckbeak?" Naruto asked curiously.

"A hippogriff," Harry offered by way of explanation. Naruto stared blankly at him while Sasuke shot him a glare that let Harry know just how much of a moron the dark-haired shinobi thought he was.

"Er, right, sorry – a hippogriff is half horse and half eagle – back legs of a horse; front legs, wings and head of an eagle."

"That's awesome!" Naruto exclaimed. "Can I meet it later?"

Sirius chuckled good-naturedly at his excitement. "Yeah, I'll take you up when you're done here," he acquiesced, nodding.

"Alright! Thanks, Sirius, you rule," Naruto said gratefully.

"Hey, Sirius?" Harry asked his godfather, "We were wondering about that tapestry…"

So it went on, and Sirius told them the whole story of his family, Harry adding commentary while Naruto just listened with a downcast, sombre expression on his face. Not having any family was terrible for him, sure, but he'd heard so many stories of awful things happening within families from people that he'd met that he often thought that that was worse. It had always depressed him when families had fallouts, or got rifts between them – he thought that, since they actually _had _each other, then they should treasure each other as much as possible. Unfortunately, this rarely happened in such stories, but Naruto understood that it was because people who were constantly surrounded with family took it for granted, and didn't realise how bad life could be _without _it until they experienced it.

**xxx**

As they went back to work, Naruto resolved to talk to Sirius and Harry about family before they left for the school.

**xxx**

Cleaning for the day done, Sirius sook out Naruto to take him to meet Buckbeak as promised. Wandering slowly up the stairs from the basement kitchen to find him, Sirius reflected on the shinobi and what he knew of them.

At a recent Order meeting, the topic of the new guards had come up. Personally, the Black felt that it was an excellent idea to bring in forces that Voldemort and his followers would not know how to counter. However, some of the other members felt differently. Molly had expressed her concern at having two young men alone guard so many people, while Snape had been sceptical about their capability to perform such a task.

While he could somewhat sympathise with Molly – they weren't that old, really – he found himself repeating in his head what they had been told previously. The two shinobi had been adults since they were twelve, so they obviously had years of experience, and were accustomed to battle – if their eyes were anything to go off of, at least. In both pairs Sirius had seen a lifetime of suffering, as well as the pain and sorrow brought on by witnessing death. That kind of pain stayed with you forever, whether it was someone close to you, done by your own hand or not, it would never leave you.

Most members of the Order had that same look in their eyes, yet they were all grown men and women; Sirius wondered what kind of society caused men as young as Sasuke and Naruto to gain that.

Snape's protests against the appointment were, in Sirius' opinion, largely unfounded and self-righteous. In his eyes, Snape was merely refusing to accept that people under half his age could be stronger than him. Sirius had argued fiercely against him, saying that if Dumbledore requested their 'true power' to remain hidden, then they must be incredibly strong – never mind that the extent of what they could do went beyond making hundreds of clones of themselves without a second thought.

No, on the whole, Sirius thought that, however immature they may act at times, the two foreigners had powers that wizards could never imagine in their wildest dreams. Given the fact that they had Dumbledore's full confidence, and he had no problems entrusting Harry's safety to them.

Sirius reached the room that the two had been occupying, knocking politely on the door. Sasuke called, "Come in," over what sounded like Naruto begging for mercy.

…He was right. Sasuke had Naruto pinned down on his bed and was tickling him furiously and with an inordinate amount of sadistic glee. The blonde beneath his was alternating between giggling and pleading for it to stop.

In between the giggles, he heard something that sounded suspiciously like "There's nothing wrong with your hair, I was wrong."

Unable to help himself, Sirius said dryly, "Toughened warriors, I see."

Sasuke nodded seriously, finally ending the torture he was subjecting his team mate to. "Of course," he replied smoothly, stepping off the bed and smoothing his pants down.

Naruto sat up, clutching his stomach and breathing heavily, a huge, lopsided grin on his face. "Are we going to see Buckbeak?" he asked eagerly.

"Yeah," Sirius nodded. "You can come too, if you like," he added to Sasuke.

"Sure," Sasuke shrugged. "Nothing better to do."

**xxx**

Sirius took them up to see the hippogriff. He refused to go _near_ Naruto, but let Sasuke pet him for over five minutes.

Naruto walked around pouting for the rest of the day.

**xxx**

The two foreigners spent most of the next week helping the other inhabitants clean the ancient house. Everyone was surprised that Naruto, even though he'd said he would, enjoyed it as much as he did. On one occasion, he cleaned a whole room by himself in a day, thanks to the help from his shadow clones. Sasuke and Harry had come in to tell him that it was lunch time to find a room full of dobes enthusiastically scrubbing, dusting, and throwing rubbish in bags, all of whom were participating in a strange group rap-off. They were doing so in Japanese, and while Sasuke could tell that it was vaguely cleaning-related, Harry just gaped at the sight.

After delivering the message (receiving a delighted 'Yosh!' in reply), Sasuke closed the door behind himself firmly with a sigh. Rubbing the bridge of his nose, he took one look at Harry's stunned face and said simply, "Don't ask."

He'd walked off, muttering darkly under his breath about damn octopi corrupting his dobe. Harry decided not to comment.

**xxx**

The day after the rapping incident, Mad-Eye stopped by for another meeting, confirming their suspicions that the creature in the writing desk in the drawing room was, in fact, a boggart. Having been told what a boggart _was_, Naruto was eager to accompany Mrs Weasley while she got rid of it. Once again, the Weasley mother attempted to deny any help where it wasn't needed, and once again, Naruto insisted, this time arguing that they had to know what magical animals were like, as well as the kind of powers they had.

In the end, she just said that she wouldn't stop him.

**xxx**

Naruto wasn't that scared by the idea of a boggart.

"It turns into what you're most afraid of," Harry had told him over breakfast. Well, he supposed that that wasn't too bad – he _knew _what he was most afraid of already, and if he knew, he could anticipate how to deal with it. It wasn't want you might think it would be – Madara, Orochimaru or Kurama – it wasn't even his precious people dying. He'd experienced that with Jiraiya, and he knew that there was something else that destroyed him more effectively, left him in smaller pieces. It terrified him, in all honesty, so much so that he could hardly bear to give it thought.

It scared him so much because it had happened before.

**xxx**

_Crack. Crack. Crack._

One by one, each of Mrs Weasley's family members appeared before her, dead. She was growing more and more hysterical with every transformation, unable to bear the sight before her. Her spell was growing weaker with every try, every tear that ran down her face. Naruto had remained behind her, at her request, and was trying to assure her that no, it's okay, it's not real, he's downstairs – but it was ineffective. At this point, he doubted that she even heard him.

Naruto grimaced. Molly had told him to let her deal with it, but in the state that she was in, she wouldn't be able to do anything. Letting her continue would only cause her more pain.

Slowly, he pulled a kunai from the pouch strapped to his leg and advanced on the boggart. As soon as he was in front of Mrs Weasley, it changed shape with a _crack. _The form it took was exactly what he expected, but it still pained him.

In front of him stood Sasuke, back in his awful Sound clothing. He wore the same bored, superior expression that had only recently vanished from his face. The boggarts thin lips parted, and spoke the words that Naruto constantly feared.

_I'm leaving._

It's not really him. He's downstairs, it's an illusion…

_Why should I stay?_

Not real…

_I don't need you._

He doesn't, really… He could leave at any time. _What could I have done to keep him? Why was I not good enough?_

_Not real, _he remembered fiercely. Naruto forced his hands together, his chakra bursting outward. "Kai!"

No effect.

**xxx**

Downstairs, in the kitchen, the real Sasuke felt Naruto's chakra flare out. It was panicked – there was something wrong.

He stood abruptly, murmuring "Naruto…"

"What's wrong?" Tonks asked sleepily, her hair blonde and curly, eyes still drooping.

"I don't know," Sasuke said shortly, "But I need to go…"

With that, he shunshined into the drawing room to find Mrs Weasley crying on the floor, Naruto in front of her, shaking as he faced a copy of Sasuke. The real version of the two winced inwardly – he knew what boggarts did, but was this really what Naruto feared…?

It made sense to him when the boggart spoke, its voice cold, full of scorn.

_Who needs to hang around pathetic losers like you?_

Hardly needing to think about it, he pulled a few shuriken from his pocket and launched them at the boggart furiously. Naruto, in his state, had hardly noticed Sasuke's entrance, so as the metal weapons whizzed past him, his spun around, coming face to face with the real Sasuke, who, in a rare display of emotion, yanked Naruto into a tight hug.

"Idiot," he murmured affectionately into Naruto's hair. "I'm not like that anymore, remember?"

"Th-The boggart…" Naruto said weakly, his face pressed into Sasuke's chest.

"I got it," the dark-haired shinobi stated grimly, pulling himself away. He threw himself at the boggart, and it twisted in shape, about to change when Sasuke rammed it back into the writing desk.

**xxx**

After consoling Mrs Weasley, Harry, who had rushed up when he realised that something was amiss, took care of the boggart. Sasuke had carefully wrapped an arm around Naruto, leading him to their bedroom. Once there, he sat the blond down on his bed, and attempted to talk some sense into him.

"Naruto," he started calmly, drawing the blue, frightened eyes towards his own steady black. Sasuke knew that he was no good at it, but he was going to try to console his best friend nonetheless.

"What's wrong with you? You knew it was an illusion."

…Well, _try _being the operative word.

"I - " Naruto flinched, turning his head away, ashamed. "I feel like I'm always waiting for you to go again…" he muttered quietly.

Sasuke watched him incredulously. Surely he had noticed that, since Sasuke had returned, he hardly spent his time outside of Naruto's presence? He _must _have noticed that Sasuke's insults, once sharp, poisonous and constant, had morphed into soft, occasional phrases, spoken with emotions that he didn't want to identify, there to reassure the blond that everything was okay between them? He _had _to have caught on to the way that Sasuke never trained with anyone else, the way that he practically lived at his apartment half the time, the way that he smiled more when he was with him?

Obviously not. Sasuke smiled, a little sadly.

"…You really don't know, do you?" he asked softly.

"Know what?" Naruto asked, his tone downcast, blue eyes refusing to meet his.

_How much you mean to me._

_That I live for you._

_I would rather die than be without your light again._

He wanted to say all of these things. They were all true, but he had the feeling that any one of them would cross a very thin line somewhere in their relationship – a formidable line, one that had grown thinner and thinner over the years, and was close to being erased. But -

"…Why I came back in the first place," was all he could bring himself to say. It was enough, as his team mate, his best friend, _Naruto _turned his head and met his eyes again with his own breathtaking blue.

"Why…" the tanned boy murmured, afraid of getting his hoped up. Sasuke shot him a significant glance, and he understood.

Falling down across the bed, Naruto breathed out, "Really…?"

Lying next to him, staring up at the old ceiling, Sasuke hummed in agreement. "And," he continued, turning his head to gaze at the blond, "Why I stayed."

They lay there for a while, each lost in his own thoughts.

_Because of you._

**xxx**

In the dead of the night, Sasuke was woken by his roommate's whimpering. The sleeping blond jinchuuriki was thrashing in his bed, covers thrown aside and limbs flailing. His eyes were screwed up tightly, his shaggy, blond hair, so much like his father's, a total mess. Cautiously, Sasuke pushed his blankets off, stepped out of bed and padded over the worn carpet to where Naruto was sleeping.

Once he was right beside the other bed, the desperate whimpers took shape. "No… please…" he was saying, "Please, don't… don't leave me again… Sasu…ke…" He gave a quiet moan and threw an arm over his eyes, other hand fisted in the bottom sheet.

Forcing himself out of his frozen state, the paler shinobi reached out and shook Naruto's bare shoulder gently. "Naruto…" he said quietly. No effect. Sasuke rolled his eyes. _Some ninja. _

He tried again, more forcefully this time. Perching on the edge of his best friend's bed, Sasuke grasped both of the tanned shoulder and shook them with conviction. "Naruto," he said firmly, finally rousing him from his disturbed sleep.

"Sasuke-" he gasped, clutching the Uchiha's wrists like they were a lifeline. "Sasuke – don't – don't go… Please don't go…"

A little sadly, Sasuke calmly replied in what he hoped was a soothing manner, "Shh, it was just a dream. I'm not going anywhere, Naruto. You know that."

When he tried to free his wrists from the blond's death grip, however, Naruto was having none of it. "No - " he choked out, "Please… please stay."

Sasuke sighed, gently freeing his right hand and bringing it to one of Naruto's tanned, whiskered cheeks. "Naruto," he said firmly, "I am not leaving you, okay? We already talked about this. I'll never leave you. You _know _that."

Naruto shook his head helplessly. "No, that's not – I meant…" he turned his head away, suddenly becoming shy. "I meant… don't leave me… tonight."

There was an awkward pause in which Naruto refused to look at Sasuke and Sasuke couldn't look away from Naruto. And then – "Are you going to move over, dobe?" Naruto gave a big, genuine, grateful grin – the kind that melted Sasuke's heart and made him want to hug the idiot – and scooted over to the edge of the bed, allowing his most precious person to climb in next to him. Naruto, brought back to reality, was attempting to give him some space in the small bed, but Sasuke was having none of it. He swiftly yanked the shorter male over to him, wrapping his arms around the others waist so that the blond head rested on his shoulder.

"Hn. Much better," Sasuke smirked.

There was a half-hearted 'bastard' before the two fell silent once again, falling into a warm, dreamless sleep, safe in each other's arms.

**xxx**

_A/N: Uh… oops? this chapter turned out waaaaaay gayer than I intended but… ah, whatever, you love it. review, yo, I need love over here xoxo_


	4. Get to know you

_A/N: it took a long time and I'm an awful person, I know, I know. congrats to poco351 for being the 100__th__ follower of this lame-ass shit, and animeromance72 for being the 50__th__ reviewer._

_Warnings: Yaoi/slash, language, innuendos, distinct lack of plotline. _

_Disclaimer: still playing in the fandom sandbox._

**xxxx**

**Unmasked: Chapter Four: Get To Know You**

**xxxx**

The next morning, Fred and George were on wake up duty again, but Ginny had tagged along to rouse the shinobi, not even bothering to give an excuse. The thing about the twins, she had learnt, was that there was almost no secret safe from them. It was best not to pretend, in any case, as it generally resulted in their playful teasing. Fred and George, on their part, were holding off on their only sister because she may get fed up and leave, which wouldn't do, since they _had _to see what she was up to.

As soon as they reached the door, the twins knocked on it in tandem, loudly and obtrusively. Without preamble, they swung the door open and began to march inside. They stopped dead, however, at the sight that greeted them. The two sleeping ninja were curled up together, wearing only their boxers, in Naruto's small bed, the covers kicked to the side in the night. Their muscled limbs were a tangled mess, Naruto, mumbling in his sleep, had his messy blond head resting on the other's chest, held there possessively by the Uchiha.

"What's wrong?" Ginny asked from behind her brothers, the red-heads blocking her view of the room. She knew, from unfortunate experience, that the goofy pranksters that she called her brothers enjoyed that which irritated others, which included, but was not limited to, waking people up in the most annoying, obnoxious way possible.

Fred and George shot each other matching looks of wicked cunning before answering their sister. "Oh, nothing," they replied airily.

Continuing in, they gave their usual loud, cheery greeting of 'rise and shine', plopping themselves down on Sasuke's vacant bed and allowing Ginny to see the compromising position that the shinobi were in. She gave a small gasp of surprise, feeling disappointed yet exited by the fact that they were gay.

Naruto's eyes fluttered open sleepily, and he squinted around the room, then up at Sasuke, whose eyes had slid smoothly open, waking instantly. The Uchiha was smirking fondly – if smirking _fondly_ was even possible, he wasn't sure, but with Uchihas you never know – down at him. The blond gave a squawk of surprise, jolting upright and away from his friend.

"Eh?! Okay, I _know _I wasn't drunk," Naruto said, narrowing his eyes at his amused black-haired bed mate. "Did you drug me?" he asked suspiciously.

Fred and George, over on Sasuke's bed, were laughing with each other. George calmed down enough to say, "We knew you guys were weird, but this is something else," before he gave in to laughter again.

"What?!" Naruto screeched, wide-eyed. "We're not – you think we're – No!"

Sitting up, Sasuke slid an arm around Naruto's shoulders to put a hand over the loud teen's mouth, his protests becoming muffled and incoherent.

"Shut up, usuratonkatchi. It's too early for you to be annoying. Besides," he smirked, his mouth next to Naruto's ear, "I believe that _you _were the one who begged me not to leave you."

The jinchuuriki glared at him while the twins' snickering increased and Ginny muttered faintly something about needing to go just before she rushed from the room, blushing heavily. After a moment or two, it became apparent to Naruto that Sasuke had no intention of removing his hand from his mouth, so he did the only logical thing in to do in such a situation – he licked his friends' hand.

Sasuke withdrew instantly, nose screwed up and brow furrowed. "Dobe," he said disapprovingly, "That's not how you're supposed to use your tongue."

As Naruto spluttered helplessly, Fred and George stood to leave as well.

"We'd better give the lovebirds their space, right, George?"

"Well said, Fred. Well, my good fellows, we'll be leaving now. Breakfast is in twenty minutes." With that they left, still chuckling lightly to themselves. When they were gone, Naruto turned slowly to his friend, obviously aggravated.

"What the hell, teme?" He hissed softly. "They're all going to think that we're sleeping together!"

"Well, technically," Sasuke drawled dryly, "We just did, dobe."

Naruto groaned in frustration, falling back against the bed and throwing an arm over his eyes. "God, are you always this much of a pervert in the morning?"

The Uchiha rolled his eyes. "Please," he said sardonically, "It's not my fault that you turn into a massive uke when you have nightmares."

The blond shifted his arm so that he could crack open a blue eye in annoyance. "Watch who you're calling a uke, teme," he growled. "I happen to be very masculine, thank you very much."

"Oh?" Sasuke replied sceptically. "Name one person you've topped," he asked, not actually expecting an answer. As far as he was aware, Naruto had never had that kind of experience. It came as a shock, then, when the tanned boy's lips flew open and firmly stated, "Gaara."

When Sasuke stared blankly at him for several moments, Naruto cackled, rolling himself out of bed. Still laughing, in an almost maniacal manner, he grabbed his clothes for the day and walked out, headed for the bathroom. Only when he was gone did it really sink in to Sasuke that _Naruto had slept with Gaara. _He shivered unpleasantly, hastily picking up his own clothes and shunshining into the bathroom before his friend got there.

Predictably, Naruto pounded angrily on the door, demanding that he 'stop being a bastard' because he was 'going first'. Sasuke scoffed. Like that made a difference to him.

"So sorry, dobe, but I need to scrub away the mental images you just gave me."

Naruto stalked away, grumbling under his breath about jerks who don't know how to be accepting friends.

**xxxx**

When they came down for breakfast, Harry noticed that there was a distinctly awkward air about them. Naruto was seemingly amused by something, a slight smirk lingering on his mouth and his blue eyes twinkling, while Sasuke was silently seething – even if his face was as expressionless as the wizards had ever seen it, he was radiating a 'don't mess with me right now if you value your limbs' vibe.

This continued through the meal, but Naruto grew less light-hearted and more irritated every passing minute. Harry was watching apprehensively; to him, it looked like an argument waiting to happen, and he was nervous, because he didn't know how ninja dealt with each other when they were frustrated. If it was anything like the images that his mind was drawing up, then he had no desire to actually find out.

Fred and George, however, were still amused from earlier that morning, and had no sense for imminent danger – yes, ninjas having an argument was danger, don't question it – unless it was coming from the direction of their mother. Ginny, on her part, could not look at either of the shinobi without blushing – she could not get the image of them sleeping, half-naked in each other's arms. Merlin, she was turning into a pervert… _I blame Fred and George, _she thought resolutely.

Ron was both too oblivious and too hungry to notice anything, and Hermione was reading a book from Grimmauld Place's small library, so Harry was left to watch them, his eyes flickering back and forth between them like a tennis match, alone.

Just as everyone was about to be finished eating, Naruto gave in, and, after angrily putting his knife and fork down with a _thud_, grabbed Sasuke's shoulder and icily said, "Excuse us." With that there was a puff of smoke, clearing to reveal that they had both disappeared.

Harry exchanged a worried look with Hermione, who had at least picked up on something wrong just before they had vanished, and wondered what could be bothering the two of them. For all of their differences, the pair seemed to get on better than almost anyone Harry knew, and he'd never seen such a close relationship outside of the Weasley twins.

Apparently, in addition to being both foreign and ninjas, possessing untold power and being very amusing, the two shinobi also functioned as a private soap opera.

Brilliant. It was like Ron and Hermione all over again.

**xxxx**

Naruto had shunshined them into their musty bedroom, landing, still in a sitting position, on Naruto's bed, early light still streaming in through the narrow window.

The blond turned to his friend angrily, keeping his grip on the other's shoulder.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" his hissed. "Why are you getting pissy all of a sudden? This can't just be because I didn't tell you I was with Gaara, so what is it?"

Sasuke glared angrily at nothing, giving nothing away. "You don't tell me anything, so why should I tell you?"

"_What?" _Naruto questioned softly, disbelieving. "Is it about my mask? Seriously? You _do_ know that you're the first person except for Granny to know about it, right? And the only reason _she _knew in the first place was because she's a Hokage who likes to shove her perpetually young nose into my business instead of doing paperwork."

Sasuke let out a small sigh. "It's not just that. It's… all of this, really. Your dad, the Kyuubi's name, that you're strong enough to be learning Flying Raijin, even your… sexuality – I didn't know any of that. Your my best friend, I'm _supposed _to know things like that, and yet…"

The guilt, like it had been over the years over the few large secrets that he kept mostly to himself, hit him once again. Naruto was well aware that Sasuke had no other people in his life that he considered to be a friend, and now he did this… It wasn't like he had ever enjoyed hiding these things from Sasuke – it hurt himself, too – but it had been necessary in the past and had become hard to let go of.

"It's as if you've suddenly become a different person."

Oh, that little…

"Wow, imagine that, your best friend becoming a different person. That must _really _suck for you, Sasuke," Naruto commented dryly, tone heavy with sarcasm. He regretted it almost instantly, when Sasuke winced and averted his eyes.

"Okay, okay, sorry, I didn't mean that," he apologised hastily. "I wanted to tell you as soon as you came back, honestly," he looked down at his hands sadly. "But I _couldn't_, obviously, not when you were being monitored by ANBU all the time. This is the first time we've had a mission together by ourselves."

It was true. A condition of Sasuke's acceptance back into the village was that he be followed by a squad of elite ANBU members at all times of the day. Given this, Naruto had been unable to show himself to the full extent without others knowing – and, even though ANBU would never give away another's secrets so easily, he was still uncomfortable with them seeing it before all of his friends did.

In addition to this, he was also rendered unable to inform his best friend of his father's identity, anything at all to do with Kurama, his true strength and… well, he really didn't want to come out as gay to nameless shinobi before he did to Sakura.

Sasuke groaned, flopping back onto the bed with a soft _fwump. _"It just frustrates me," he admitted quietly. "I thought that I knew everything about you."

"Well," Naruto started, falling down to lie on his side, head propped up by his hand, "What do you want me to explain?" He was hoping that, like he usually did, he could get out of this by talking. Ah, the Talk no jutsu, it was a long-time favourite of his, and, best of all, no chakra required!

"I'll tell you anything," he added softly.

Sasuke pouted slightly, giving him a mild glare. "You better."

Naruto grinned, and they spent the next hour talking quietly on his bed, the rest of their breakfast forgotten.

**xxxx**

That night, a week after Harry, Naruto and Sasuke had arrived at Grimmauld Place, a pseudo meeting was taking place in the room that Harry shared with Ron. The Weasley children, Harry and Hermione had all gathered, without anyone suggesting it, to discuss the two strange guards that Dumbledore had entrusted the safety of Hogwarts to.

"So," Fred and George chimed together. "We're talking about those foreign blokes, yeah?" Fred continued.

Ron opened his mouth to answer, but never got to, as, at that moment, the door to the room swung open, and Naruto, in orange pants and his black shirt with a red swirl, entered, Sasuke trailing behind him in jounin gear, sans vest.

"Yo!" Naruto called happily. "You know," he commented, plopping himself between Harry and Hermione and throwing his arms around their shoulders, "If you wanted to talk about us, you really should have_ invited_ us_. _No one better to learn about ourselves from, na?"

Sasuke sighed from where he was leaning up against the wall, near the window, when everyone in the room froze up and became deathly quiet. "I told him not to do this, I really did," he explained half-heartedly.

"Ah, come on, it's a great idea!" Naruto claimed happily. "Besides, we have questions too, y'know. This way – what's with you, Sasuke?" At 'y'know', Sasuke had banged his head softly against the wall, eyes cast skyward, as if begging for divine intervention.

The black-haired ANBU groaned in despair. "I thought the 'y'know' days were behind us," he muttered, not moving his gaze from the ceiling.

"Oi, what are you trying to say?" Naruto demanded, pointing a finger at his friend angrily. "Ma said it too, y'know!"

Sasuke groaned louder, pale hands reaching up to cover his ears. "No, please, spare me," he asked sarcastically.

"Asshole," Naruto commented conversationally, his eyes on Harry, who he'd noticed was distracted by the thought of his hearing that was taking place the next day. "Don't worry," he told the green-eyed boy quietly, laying a steady hand on his thin shoulder. "You'll get off for sure. There's nothing against you."

Harry gave him a grateful smile. He had been nervous all day, and as the night deepened, his anxiety grew. There was no telling what would happen, in his eyes, since the Ministry was being uncooperative and trying to discredit him. While he _knew _that he had to get off, and _knew _that there was nothing that could really be said against him, he could not help the dread that was slowly closing in on him. Everyone else seemed so positive that he would not get expelled, and yet no matter how many times they assured him so, the worry remained.

There was something slightly different, though, about that large, warm hand on his shoulder, and those blue eyes shining with confidence. It filled him with hope, and he wondered how Naruto did it.

"A-Anyway," Harry stuttered, "Aren't you mad that we were talking about you behind your backs?" He knew that if he, himself, was in the same situation, he would be _pissed_. He knew mostly because it had happened before… yeah, he hated being famous.

"Not at all," Naruto assured him easily. "We're weird, foreign, unknown, and we can do stuff that you didn't think possible, right? Of course you're talking about us. To be honest, you'd be kind of stupid not to."

"Well that… makes sense, I guess," Harry responded, weak with relief. While he had only just met the two, he could tell that they both had very interesting stories. If nothing else, Naruto was genuinely nice to them, and Harry didn't want any chance of positive interactions between them to be dashed so early.

"So," Naruto started eagerly, "We'll even go first. What do you want to know?"

"Um," Hermione said nervously, "Your leader said that you were to 'hide the true extent of your power'. Doesn't that include here, too? We're all students at Hogwarts, and yet you've been doing all sorts of incredible things. Is that okay?"

Naruto chuckled slightly. "Hermione," he answered, blue eyes twinkling, "Trust me, we haven't been using our full power. If we weren't, most of the city wouldn't still be standing. We'd never violate orders on a mission unless it was under special circumstances."

Hermione gave a quiet 'oh' of understanding while Ron cursed under his breath. "You mean you can do _more_ than make hundreds of yourself?! Bloody hell," he said, awed, "Ninjas are ridiculous."

Everyone in the room privately agreed. Being able to clone yourself using energy alone was one feat in itself, but the mere idea of doing it hundreds of times over was crazy to all of them.

"That's just Naruto," Sasuke commented dryly. "It's not as if every ninja is capable of the same."

"What can you do, then?" Ron asked eagerly. "You have cool eyes, but what else?"

"My eyes do more than see," was all he said. "Besides," he added at Naruto's frustrated look in his direction, "I have other abilities."

"Ninjas _are _ridiculous," Ron confirmed to himself. "What the hell else can eyes do?"

"Ron!" Hermione scolded, but Naruto waved it away. "It's alright," he assured them, "We get that a lot. Actually, I kind of agree. You should have seen the war!"

"You guys had a war?" Ginny asked quietly, her hand to her mouth, stifling her shocked gasp.

Sasuke remained silent, eyes averted, leaving Naruto to answer.

"Yeah," he said quietly, resting his elbows on his knees, expression downcast. "It was really bad. We won, though," he added optimistically.

"Only thanks to you," Sasuke remarked quietly.

"That's not true!" Naruto protested. "I wasn't alone! It wouldn't have ended the way it did without everyone's help!"

"You stopped a war?" Harry asked, impressed.

"No! Ugh, dammit, everyone keeps playing me up to be some kind of hero! I didn't even _know _there was a war until Iruka-sensei told me about it!"

"You seem to be forgetting," Sasuke interjected, "That if you hadn't brought yourself and Killer Bee to the battlefield, Tobi and Madara would have won, and we'd be in an infinite genjutsu right about now."

"Well – okay, I helped a bit, but I had Kurama and Octopops and Hattsan and everyone else there with me."

"Uh, genjutsu? Killer Bee? Kurama? Hattsan? Madara? What's all that?" Fred asked curiously.

"A genjutsu is basically a big illusion that messes with your head so that you can't _tell _it's an illusion," Naruto explained. "And Obito, or Tobi, whatever you want to call him, and Madara were our enemies in the war. Hattsan is the Eight-tails, one of the nine tailed beasts, and he's sealed inside of Octopops. Octopops – his name is Killer Bee, but I call him Octopops – is a friend and teacher of mine. And Kurama…" He trailed off, looking over at Sasuke for guidance. "I don't know if I should tell you that."

"You might as well," Sasuke offered. "Everyone finds out at some point."

"I guess that's true," Naruto chuckled.

"What's wrong with telling us about your friend?" Ginny asked.

"Ah, people just tend to get judgemental, that's all," Naruto said. "But lately… Yeah, I'll tell you, then," he decided. Usually when people freaked out because of his status as a jinchuuriki, it was because they hadn't heard about it from him, and saw him as a demon. If _he _explained it…

"I just mentioned Hattsan, right? I said that he's a tailed beast, do you know what that is?"

Everyone shook their heads dumbly. "Right… Well, have you heard of the Sage of Six Paths?"

More head shaking. Naruto sighed inwardly. _I'm telling this from the very beginning, then… _"The Sage of Six Paths lived a long time ago, and he was the origin of all jutsu. He had the Rinnegan, the eyes of God, and he was the strongest ninja to ever live." Naruto paused, gathering his thoughts. "In his time, the Ten-tails lived. It was too powerful for anyone to stand against it, so to gain some peace, the Sage of Six Paths sealed it inside of himself.

"He knew that when he died, though, it would get set loose again, so he separated it into nine tailed beasts, each with a different number of tails, one to nine. Hattsan is the Hatchibi, the Eight-tailed octopus, sealed within Octopops." ("Oh, so that's why he calls him that," Fred and George remarked.) "Kurama, my friend, is the Nine-tailed fox, and he's sealed inside of me," he finished, his right hand drifting over the seal on his stomach while his slightly anxious blue eyes surveyed the room.

"Huh?" Harry asked blankly. "You have a fox _in _you? And you're… friends with it?"

"Hang on," Ron said, "How do you even seal animals inside of people? And why would you _want_ to?"

"Sealing jutsus," Naruto said offhandedly. "For various reasons," he continued ambiguously. "Mainly because most tailed beasts hate humans for constantly trying to manipulate their power, and they don't hold back in expressing it."

Hermione gave a little gasp of understanding while all other faces remained mostly vacant of comprehension.

"Meaning…?" Ron asked, eyes directed at his bushy-haired friend.

"Oh, honestly," she said, exasperated at his inability to come to conclusions without guidance. "He means that the tailed beasts have killed a lot of people. Right?" she checked, glancing hesitantly at Naruto, who was still seating beside her.

He nodded. "However," he asserted, wanting them to be absolutely clear on what he was about to say, "They can change when they have a jinchuuriki – er, a vessel, someone they're sealed in. Octopops and I have both bonded with our tailed beasts, and they've become our friends who fight alongside us. Kurama," he continued, a hand proudly on his stomach (Sasuke just barely refrained from interrupting the small speech to make motherhood jokes), "Is my friend and comrade, and he won't hurt anyone unless I let him."

"Alright," Harry agreed, somewhat shakily. "So there are just – just two of you in there, then?" He gestured roughly towards the blonds head.

"Yeah," Naruto confirmed. "We can talk and stuff inside my mind. Sometimes he's a bit of a jerk, but then, so is Sasuke."

"You do realise," Sasuke said coldly, "That all I have to do is look at you and you're on fire?"

Naruto waved it away. "If you wanted to Amaterasu me, you would've done it by now," he assured, while Ron mouthed to himself 'my eyes do more than see.'

"There was another thing," Fred remembered. "I thought it was weird at the time, but I didn't say anything… In that letter, your leader said that there was no danger of you two being recognised here – are you, like, famous or something?"

"Yes," Sasuke answered blandly.

"You too, huh?" Harry asked dispassionately.

"Yea – Wait, are _you _famous, Harry?" the only blond in the room inquired, eyes wide and innocently curious.

"A little," he answered evasively, "But what are you two famous for?"

"Eh, a number of things. I think I started getting famous after I defeated Pein and saved the village, but being a jinchuuriki means that people are always keeping tabs on you anyway. And Sasuke… well, he's an Uchiha," he said simply.

"Is that a big deal?" Ron asked.

"Kinda, there aren't really many… left…" he trailed off weakly, looking to his taciturn friend for help.

"Almost all of the Uchiha clan was slaughtered in one night when I was a child," Sasuke explained emotionlessly. "Presently, my older brother and I are the only two left."

"That's awful," Ginny whispered. "What on earth happened?"

"None of your business," he said rudely, voice cold enough to make an eskimo shiver.

The poor Weasley was visibly offended, and she looked like she was about to tell him exactly where he could stick his attitude before Naruto cut in hurriedly.

"He just doesn't like to talk about it," he said, waving his hands, trying to dispel the hostility that had just sprung up. "Don't take it personally; he's like that to everyone."

"Everyone except you, from what we saw this morning," George joked, and everyone laughed, having had the story relayed to them by the twins who were currently on the receiving end of the Uchiha Glare™.

"I'm just hard to resist," Naruto admitted, smirking. "It's the natural Namikaze charm."

"Not Uzumaki charm?" Sasuke asked, not bothering to address the teasing. He got enough of that from Naruto without indulging others.

"Oh, no way, dude. I didn't tell you about my mum, did I?"

"Hn. No."

"She used to beat people up for making fun of her hair. Seriously. She was great, and I love her, but _charming? _No way. That was my dad, for sure," he said with a little serious nod.

"Er, was?" Harry asked, his heart skipping a beat as he caught on to Naruto's use of past tense in referral to his parents.

"Aa. My parents are dead," Naruto said, scratching his whiskered cheek.

"I'm sorry," Hermione said quietly. "That must have been awful for you."

"Not really," the blonde shot back easily, startling brown eyes to jerk upwards, meeting his own amused ones. "They died the day I was born." He shrugged, "So it's not like I remember it."

"My parents died when I was one," Harry chipped in.

"Ah, really? What happened to them?"

"Voldemort killed them because they were protecting me. For some reason, he wanted to kill me, but my parents didn't take kindly to that. That's actually why I'm famous – Voldemort _tried _to kill me, but it didn't work. The Killing Curse backfired, and he lost all his powers. I'm the only one to ever survive it," Harry explained, his bright green eyes darkening and glazing over as he thought about Voldemort and his parents.

"Ohh, that's pretty cool!" Naruto praised, causing Harry to look shocked. "Oh, I mean, not that your parents were murdered, that part is pretty shitty, but surviving a Killing Curse sounds impressive!"

"Not as impressive as stopping a war," Harry muttered, embarrassed.

"Aren't you guys about to have a war, too?" Naruto asked the room at large.

"That's the way it looks," Hermione answered, a little sadly.

"Well, maybe - "

Naruto was cut off by Molly Weasley throwing the door open angrily. "What is going on in here?!" she demanded.

"Recon, Ma'am," Naruto piped, saluting her.

"Not at this time of night! Bed, all of you! Harry's hearing is tomorrow so he needs to rest, and he can't do that with you lot loitering here."

Harry had honestly forgotten about his hearing for a while, his mind overcome by the things that the shinobi had told them. Now it hit him full force again, and after everyone scurried out and he and Ron were settled in bed, he became uneasy once more, hardly sleeping at all.

**xxxx**

_A/N: "That's not how you're supposed to use your tongue." yeah, this might just be my favourite thing I've ever thought of…_

_next chapter is the whole hearing dilly and diagon alley yahoo_

_uh, if you're still here after the long wait you're awesome and I love you. review?_


	5. A New World

_A/N: as always, thanks to everyone out there reviewing this, it makes me happy and tells me what to improve on c:_

_I was just flipping through my copy of order of the phoenix and I realised that I'm screwing with the order of the storyline a bit, but I don't reckon it matters that much. events in this chapter won't follow the book, because all of the detail jkr puts in is too much for li'l ol' me. sorry if I'm neglecting the hp characters a bit, but post-canon sasunaru has so many possibilities!_

_Warnings: Yaoi/slash, language, painful recapping of events you know practically by heart. _

_Disclaimer: I only own the fic – and if you try to steal _that_, I'll cut you. forreal. _

**xxxxx**

**Unmasked: Chapter Five: A New World**

**xxxxx**

Harry jolted awake very early the next morning. For a moment, his mind was blissfully and gratefully blank before the harsh reality of his imminent trial came back to him full force, filling his mind until there was nothing left save for the paralysing fear that he may have to leave the wizarding world forever. Unable to bear dwelling on it, he shoved his glasses onto his face and threw on the clothes that Mrs Weasley had left out for him.

Ron didn't stir as he left the room in a hurry, but when he was in the hallway Harry saw that the two shinobi were having another of their fights.

Well, okay, they weren't really _fights, _per se, but they did have the tendency to bicker rather frequently over menial things. Currently, he hadn't the faintest idea what the topic of argument was, but the sounds of their usual insults flying back and forth could be heard in the hall. Honestly, Harry had only known them for a week and he could identify the insults as standard order. He shook his head to himself; it was hard to believe that they were really best friends – possibly more, if Fred and George were to be trusted (nine times out of ten the answer was _oh hell no_, but he disregarded that).

Harry _seriously _had to wonder at the dynamics of their relationship, whatever its nature; they were rude and sarcastic to one another as a rule, but that did little to ease the amount of care that they had for each other. Theirs was one of the strangest friendships (yeah, he was going with friendship – prove it, Fred, go on) that he had ever seen. Previously, he had thought that Ron and Hermione fought more than humanly possible for two people who _didn't_ hate each other's guts, but the two shinobi took it to an unprecedented level.

There was a frustrated cry of 'Fuck you, bastard,' from the source of his ponderings, swiftly followed by the lazy reply of 'Didn't know you were eager, dobe,' before Naruto burst out of the room angrily. He continued past Harry and down the stairs without even noticing him, dressed in the same uniform as when he had first arrived in the wizard's bedroom, sans mask.

The green-eyed boy followed, pushing his glasses back up his nose and hoping that he and Ron never got to be like that – or, even, that they would still be able to call themselves classmates. He swallowed his growing panic thickly, fearing the result of his trial and the will of Cornelius Fudge once again.

While he couldn't be sure why, exactly, the Dementors had attacked him and his cousin (though he was about ninety-nine percent certain that it was the work of Voldemort, idiot had no life) he was aware that the Ministry had been raising a vendetta against the message that the 'He-who-must-not-be-named' was back, and that everyone had to join together to defeat him.

If he was expelled from Hogwarts, and his wand was broken, then, surely, Fudge would be more at ease in his position. That was what he feared the most about the ordeal – that the Ministry would seize the opportunity to get him out of the way of their leader's good political standing. As if _that _hadn't been crumbling ever since Sirius had escaped prison, Harry reflected with a derisive snort.

He entered the kitchen, its occupants' cheeriness serving only to worsen his mood. Spotting Naruto, who was grumbling into his cereal, Harry moved around the table to sit next to him, hoping to avoid the overwhelming positivity surrounding himself.

The blonde's grumbling didn't sound much like a flow of thought more than a stream of curses and insults, as well as creative combinations of the two. He would have asked what happened, but, even though he'd been privately making observations about the pair, he didn't want to seem rude or intrude on their private business. When he heard something about sexual tension, though, he cracked, raising an eyebrow and asking as cautiously as you walked into a minefield what the matter was.

"Oh, nothing new," he said, giving a pained smile. "Sasuke's just being his lovely, bastard-y self."

"What happened this time?"

Naruto sighed – it wasn't that anything huge had happened, but that early in the morning he was in a generally pissy mood anyway.

"Nothing, really. There's been worse. How about you?" he asked, shoving another spoonful of cornflakes in his mouth and eyeing Harry curiously. "Nervous?"

Harry shifted uncomfortably, green eyes averted, suddenly interested in the coffee rings on the broad wooden table. "Yeah," he muttered. "I know that here's nothing really against me, but the Ministry lately… they haven't exactly been fair _or _logical, so…" he trailed off.

"Ah, don't worry," Naruto thumped him encouragingly on his back, his right hand still delivering cereal to his expectant mouth. "Long's you got a good defence and i' isn' rigged, you'll be fine fo' sure," he said around his food, only coherent to the wizard because he ate with Ron regularly.

"Yeah," he agreed quietly, grateful for the sentiment despite not being heartened by it. The problem was, the closer that the trial came, the more he convinced himself that it _was_, in fact, going to be rigged against him.

"You'll be going to the Ministry with me, on my way to work, alright, Harry?" Mr Weasley said before he could dwell on the thought too much.

"Okay," Harry nodded nervously. "Are you guys coming too?" he asked Naruto.

"Yes," Sasuke answered, Naruto tensing up as he waltzed in through the door.

"Good morning, Sasuke," he gritted out, prompting his friend to deliver the sentiment to the others in the room.

"Hn."

He should have known that it was futile, really.

After a few minutes of frosty silence, during which the focus of Harry's anxiety shifted from the trial to an imminent explosion, Sasuke commented dryly, "You're taking it too seriously - "

"I am not!" Naruto didn't let him finish. "You were going to _burn _it, you fucking pyro!"

"I was just trying to get you up – "

"My favourite jumpsuit! You know - "

"Wouldn't even _open your eyes, _you were so out of it - "

"Pervy Sage bought that for me - "

"Doesn't change the fact that _I was kidding_ - _"_

"One of the only things I have left of him - "

"_I wasn't going to do it -"_

"You know I love that jumpsuit!" Naruto said heatedly.

"So do I!" Sasuke half yelled with more emotion than Harry had seen from him so far.

Naruto stared blankly at the other boy, his mouth slightly open as his cheeks rapidly turned red. The Uchiha seemed to realise what he'd said too late, and shifted uncomfortably, facing straight ahead and willing his own blush to go away.

Regaining his composure, Naruto grinned, nudging the raven's ribs with his elbow. "So you like it, huh? Huh? I knew you didn't _really _hate orange!"

"I do," Sasuke bit out, "But that one's so much better than the old one. Can you blame me?" he asked quietly.

"What was wrong with the old one?" the blonde asked, bewildered.

"Hn," Sasuke grunted. "Do you want a list?"

"It'd be helpful," Naruto deadpanned.

"It was just…" he waved his hands in a vague gesture in front of him. "Too big, for one."

Naruto just stared at him, gaze empty, and he sighed, frustrated. "You had to roll the arms and legs up just to walk around properly. And the neck was too wide."

"Says you! Did you even _look _at that shirt, or what?"

"Of course I did," he rolled his eyes. "I had to get the crest put onto it, didn't I?"

"Oh, yeah," Naruto stalled. "Whatever, the only reason it was ever orange, anyway, was that all the shopkeepers refused to sell me anything that'd make it easier to be a powerful ninja." He shrugged unconcernedly. "And then I couldn't bring myself to _stop _wearing orange because it had, like, become a part of who I was."

"…They _forced _you to buy ridiculous clothes?" Sasuke asked icily, his eyes narrowed dangerously.

"Well, yeah – the ones that even let me in the door, anyway," Naruto shrugged it off. "But that stuff doesn't matter anymore. Besides, I _am _orange!"

The stiff, unamused silence he was greeted with prompted him to explain. "Yellow Flash? Red-Hot Habanero? Orange, na?" he jerked a thumb at himself, grinning crookedly at the mention of his parents.

"Hn," he agreed, remembering what the blond had learnt of his parents when they decided to appear in his subconscious - which, Sasuke couldn't deny, he found highly disturbing as well as slightly creepy, but Naruto had looked so happy that he didn't say anything. He knew what it was like to not have parents.

**xxxxx**

Later, when the hearing was over and Harry's mind was clearer, he recounted the conversation to everyone, having found it amusing. What he didn't anticipate, however, was the twins to simultaneously turn to each other and say drolly, "_So _gay."

**xxxxx**

They walked steadily through central London, and Naruto was having a hard time trying not to openly gape at everything that he saw. All things around him were foreign and unheard of; mysterious and futuristic. Buildings that they passed by were taller, brighter, straighter than any in the Leaf; there were advertisements for technology that, in his mind, was impossible; the very people were alien, their clothes impractical, bulky and varying between obscenely dull and regularly bright.

What confounded the put out jinchuuriki the most was the cars – not that he could think of them as such, but all the same, he struggled to understand why crawling along the wide, overpopulated streets in a metal _thing _on wheels was any more convenient than running, or even simply walking where you needed to go.

Eventually, when they turned onto a wider road whose traffic was moving at an especially slow rate, he grew weary of trying to puzzle it out in his head and asked Mr Weasley what the deal was.

"Oh, you mean the cars?" he clarified, the foreigner's description being extremely vague. "Well, most people live quite a way away from where they work, and where the shops are – cars are tremendously useful for that, not to mention travelling longer distances around the country." He frowned gently, turning his head slightly such that the blond he was talking to was in his line of vision, but he was still facing forward enough to navigate his way through the mass of people swarming the pavement.

"The majority of the western world uses motor vehicles, such as cars, as the primary mode of transport. How do you get around, if not by cars?"

Naruto shrugged casually, eyeing a man in a business suit, powerwalking along the street while talking into his Bluetooth, with suspicion. "We just walk. Or run, depending on how far it is. Civilians have carriages, though, but they aren't very fast and you need someone to pull it. Oh, and a lot of ninja can use the Body Flicker jutsu, but it's not used as much."

"I see," Mr weasley replied distractedly, but the interest in his tone was not completely lost. "Your lot must be bloody good runners, then," he commented light-heartedly, a thin smile reaching his mouth, even if it was draining having to go to work the muggle way.

"Yeah," Naruto grinned back at him. "How do they work?" he asked obliviously, unknowing of the conversation that awaited such a simple question. "I mean, they're just kind of… moving themselves. It's weird."

Harry froze up slightly, trying to shoot the blond a warning glance, but he missed it, being occupied with staring at a passing motorcycle as he walked merrily along, hands stuffed casually in his pockets. He didn't even know if they _had _electricity over in ninja-land, but either way, listening to Mr Weasley's passionate tirades on plugs wasn't the best of experiences.

"Oh, it's marvellous," he started, "You wouldn't believe some of the things that muggles come up with. Positively brilliant. Cars run on internal explosion," ("Combustion," Harry muttered to Naruto, who gave a little nod of understanding) "which feeds on petrol. The whole process generates eckeltricsity – ah, electricity, yes, thanks, Harry – which powers cars and almost every other piece of muggle technology. I had a car myself once," he continued, and Harry felt a twinge of guilt, the image of a badly beaten up, dirty blue car with holes in its windscreen flashing through his head, "I fixed it up really well, too."

This kept up for about ten minutes before Sasuke managed to politely (it was a stretch) change the subject.

**xxxxx**

London's Underground may have been one of the most efficient forms of public transport, but that did not, under any circumstance, mean that easily reached. The four of them were roughly carried along by the crowd, jostled on either side by harried businesspeople and flustered mothers; the only reason that the managed to keep together was that many individuals decided to give the two shinobi a wide berth once they'd taken a look at their clothing (which happened to be their ANBU uniforms, sans masks, given that _some _guarding _may _have become necessary).

There was an awful moment where Mr Weasley chose to operate the ticket machine himself, and, of course, he had no idea what he was doing – with both the machine and the currency that he was trying to shove into the slot where the ticket came out. His hopeless fumbling with the contraption caused a minor congestion of the surge of commuters behind them. Harry quickly took control of the situation, though, while Naruto looked on with interest and Sasuke looked at the middle distance with absolute apathy, and they moved on.

The train that, apparently, they were to catch was already sitting at the platform awaiting them when the quartet arrived. It was nowhere near as impressive as the Hogwarts Express, Harry thought, but for day to day travel it did well. Naruto cleaved a path through the masses, seemingly eager to ride the train, and it occurred to Harry how strange it must be for them – it would equate, he mused, to his first trip to Diagon Alley with Hagrid, though probably less spontaneous.

The more energetic of the ninja present hopped on the train first, followed shortly by an irritated "Slow down, idiot". (And Harry was really starting to think that nothing was ever intended as an insult between the two of them.)

Sasuke sat by the window, obstinately staring blankly out of it, and the younger wizard couldn't have told you how the raven had felt even if you'd offered him a million galleons for the feat. His partner took the aisle seat next to him happily, content to people-watch even while said people were eyeing him with suspicion and distrust.

All the way along the ride, they remained predominantly on silence, with both black-haired teens brooding and the other two staring interestedly at people who most certainly were not enjoying being eyed in such a manner by blatantly strange, well, strangers.

**xxxxx**

"Through _fireplaces, _Sasuke!" Naruto emphasised, as he had been doing since they'd passed through the Atrium of the Ministry of Magic. "Seriously! We should have that, too, I bet we could invent a jutsu for it. Well, if we _had _fireplaces… But I totally would if I could travel through it!"

"There's no _point,_" Sasuke gritted out back at him, _again_, "Since you can already shunshin, idiot."

The blond opened his mouth to retort, but it was quickly closed again when they stepped out of the lift and into the ninth floor – the hallway that lead to the Department of Mysteries was dead silent, and even he could tell, by the aura coming off of the dark bricks and blue torches, that this was a place to be silent in.

**xxxxx**

"She looks like a toad," the Uchiha commented blithely. "Your kind of woman, don't you think?" He was in a good mood, given that for the past ten minutes Naruto had been steaming quietly at all the insults to his beloved toads that were contained in one awful pink lady.

The other turned to him almost mechanically, his blue eyes narrowed in cold, silent anger. "Not. Another. Word," he bit out, adding for good measure, "Or I'll take you to Mount Myouboku and you can see exactly how fun it is to live like a toad."

Sasuke watched the rest of the proceedings without looking back at his friend, but he made a mental note that he should never make any toad-related cracks around the Uzumaki – he had heard quite enough about the old toad woman's cooking to know that he never wanted any of it. _Ever. _

**xxxxx**

They passed Lucius Malfoy on the way out, and, just like Harry, Naruto and Sasuke were seized by the feeling that the man was bad news. While Harry's understanding on the matter was far deeper, given that he had actually seen the man working as a Death Eater, the other two were so experienced that they could practically smell it coming off of him.

Only once they were back in the lift did Sasuke speak up, and, even then, he muttered quietly to Naruto, "He reminded me of Kabuto."

The other cocked an eyebrow back at him. "Me too," he admitted. "I had to stop myself from knocking him out on the spot. Kurama's angry that I didn't," he added with a snicker.

Sasuke frowned to himself. Ever since he had returned, Naruto had scrupulously avoided talking about the bijuu at all, so he knew next to nothing about their relationship, save what he had been told a few days prior on the blond's bed. While he understood that they somehow became friends, and that their chakras were now merged, Sasuke wasn't clued in on how exactly it was that they communicated – or, in fact, if it was possible to do so frequently. He himself had yet to hold another conversation with the fox since their brief encounter at Orochimaru's hideout.

If he was honest – which he didn't like to be about this matter, openly or even to himself – the kyuubi had been more than a little scary when they'd met, even more so since he'd known that in the real world it would be larger and more powerful. He had felt the hatred rolling off of the fox in waves, and, had he not been so consumed in the very same emotion at the time, Sasuke would have felt highly oppressed by this.

So to hear Naruto talking about Kurama as if he were an amusing friend, even if that was the case for the jinchuuriki, was a strange experience.

"Naruto," Sasuke said seriously, "Can I talk to him sometime?"

"What?" he replied, thrown by the request. His forehead crinkled in confusion. "Sure, but what for?"

"I have something to tell him," came the stoic reply, and Naruto had the sense to realise that that was all he was going to get out of his teammate. Either way, he'd still see what was going on, even if he wasn't in the figurative driver's seat.

"Eh? What's this for? What d'you want, brat?" They were walking back through the atrium now, and the voice was noticeably lower, so it was clearly the bijuu speaking. Crowds of people swarmed past them, the general racket covering up the change.

Out of the corner of his eyes, Sasuke noted that his best friend's eyes were no longer blue and sparkling, but deep red, with slitted pupils, just as the time at the Valley of the End.

_Idiot, _he grumbled to himself. _I didn't mean right now…_

He spoke anyway, thinking that it would probably best not to get on Kurama's bad side any more than he already had.

"Thank you," he said simply.

"Ah?" he dug Naruto's finger into his ear. "For what? Having an Uchiha thank me makes me feel sick, you know."

"Your advice at that time. It was… helpful," he said honestly, recalling the gravelly warning not to kill Naruto. Outwardly, he had dismissed it, appearing apathetic to the suggestion. However, the more he had thought about it, Sasuke had realised that, once revenge was said and done, all that was really left to him were those who considered themselves his friends. He openly disliked many of them, but Naruto had always been a special case.

Kurama grunted in recognition. "Whatever. I've seen what happens to Uchiha's that lose the people they love. It's what I hate the most about your lot," he admitted bluntly.

Sasuke frowned – he was doing that a lot, maybe he'd get wrinkles – and they were squashed into the phone box again, the wizards politely averting their eyes and pretending that they weren't listening. The words had shocked him somewhat – not that kyuubi had known other Uchiha, because its (his?) history with the clan was well known – the choice of words, however, were surprising. Sasuke cared about Naruto a lot, that was for sure, but...

"Who ever said I loved him?" he questioned quietly, his face very close to Kurama's – which was actually Naruto's, dammit, this was weird – but all he got in return was a derisive snort.

"If you don't, boy, I haven't the slightest clue how strong human love could possibly be. I'm switching back now, it's making me claustrophobic in here."

**xxxxx**

… There was no way he could _love Naruto. _As if tailed beasts have any idea about such things, anyway…

**xxxxx**

"You heard it talk?!" Ron squawked late that night, after the celebrations for Harry's clearance and Ron and Hermione's new status as prefects were over.

"Yes, Ron, he just said that – be quiet, do you want your mother to hear you?" their bushy-haired friend scolded him. They were gathered, once again, in Harry and Ron's shared bedroom, only this time it was just the three of them.

"What was it like?" Ron asked, his voice hushed this time.

Harry looked down at his hands contemplatively. He hadn't really noticed that the shinobi had given over he control of his body, but he could easily feel a different aura coming off of the blond. Previously, at the very least, he had gotten the sense that he was extremely powerful, even without what they'd been told the night before. Actually feeling it, though – to have it swirl around you, sweep you up and practically consume you – that power was terrifying.

Contrary to that, though, the – what was it? 'Tailed beast'? – had appeared bored and unconcerned. It – or was it he? – didn't care too much about what was going on around him, the fact that he was in a completely foreign part of the world doing little to shake him, and he gave off the distinct impression that nothing found in an everyday setting could possibly threaten him.

He expressed these sentiments to his friends, briefly, less coherently and in fewer words, but the other two seemed to understand.

"What did he sound like?" Hermione asked quietly, voice urgent even if the question wasn't particularly important.

Harry considered this for a moment, before settling on, "Grumpy. Like, Filch-grumpy, only smarter and less wheezy."

"I want to talk to it too!" Ron whined, a little petulantly.

"Well, I didn't actually _talk _to _him_," he reminded his ginger pal, "And I don't think it's a good idea to do that – he's _really cranky, _Ron."

"So's Snape, but I still deal with him, don't I?" he dismissed Harry's warning. "Where's Naruto right now?"

"Honestly Ron, you can't just bother him with something so - " Hermione started, but Harry cut her off.

"Don't bother, you know he'll just look for him anyway," he said exasperatedly. "Last I saw, he was in the drawing room frowning at those books Hermione leant him."

**xxxxx**

And, lo and behold, there the blond shinobi was, in all his orange glory, seated at a table in the drawing room, frowning intensely at a thick, heavy-looking book that was definitely _not _in the curriculum for first-years as if it contained the world's secrets and, if he glared at it strongly enough, it may relinquish them.

Sasuke was with him, too – it seemed to them as if they were _always _together – and he was polishing a long, shiny, dangerous-looking sword almost absently.

He looked up when they entered, drawling, "Please explain that to him. He's been grumbling under his breath for the last hour."

That's how, not too long before they were due to go back to Hogwarts, the trio of friends found themselves explaining the fundamentals of magic to a ninja in Grimmauld Place's drawing room, until Kreacher decided to come in and screech at them for 'defiling' his master's house, and they were given sufficient motivation to go to bed.

**xxxxx**

_A/N: THAT TOOK FAR TOO LONG SORRY SORRY A THOUSAND APOLOGIES I DON'T EVEN REALLY HAVE AN EXCUSE BUT I'LL TRY TO DO BETTER_


	6. Almost there

**Unmasked: Chapter Six: Almost There**

**xxxxxx**

_Disclaimer: i don't own any of the characters or settings here – only the shoddy attempt at characterization. _

_Warnings: language, plot-less-ness, yaoi/slash/shounen-ai – this is a story predominantly about gay guys. k._

_A/N: hah haaaaaaa i fucking suck im really sorry_

**xxxxxx**

Though you could barely see it out of the grimy windows, only a select few of which had been relieved of their opaqueness, the morning after the victory at Harry's trial dawned bright and cloudless, the sky a merry blue and the sun bright and warm. The individuals that were presently occupying number twelve, Grimmauld Place slept long past the beautiful sunrise of pale pink and orange, grown sleepy as a result of the previous night's celebrations, which had continued long after Molly Weasley had ordered her children to go to bed – a command which, of course, went ignored.

Hermione woke up before her room's other occupant, due to a fluffy ginger cat butting her with his head before settling himself on her chest. Pleasantly warm, she indulged him, running her fingers gently over his fur, scratching behind his ears. Several long minutes passed before her hunger overcame her desire to remain in the delicious comfort of her bed.

She gently dislodged the cat, easing him to the side with a hushed 'Shh, Crookshanks,' that went unnoticed as he emitted a disgruntled yowl at her actions. Hermione proceeded to slide out of bed as noiselessly as possible, tempted to jump back in as soon as her bare feet hit the cold floor. But her stomach growled, and, leaving her hair in its tie, she pulled on a jumper and a thick pair of socks, as well as warm, tall slippers that surpasses her ankles and greeted her calves. Slipping out of the room silently, so as to not wake the ginger girl sleeping in the small room's other bed, she went off in search of food.

**xxxxxx**

When Hermione reached the kitchen, she wasn't really sure what she had expected. Most likely was that it would be empty, and covered in half-empty – or half-full, depending on your perspective – glasses and food scraps. However, it was remarkably clean – as clean, in fact, as it was just after Mrs Weasley had scrubbed it down as if it had done her a great personal wrong at the start of the summer. Pondering absently on this phenomena, she started some toast and yawned quietly.

**xxxxxx**

Some minutes later, when her toast was ready and she'd half-finished it, Naruto burst into the kitchen with Sasuke trailing behind. Both ninja were sweating copiously, though Naruto more so than Sasuke.

"Ah, I'm so hungry now," Naruto proclaimed, falling heavily into a chair across from Hermione. "Sasuke~, make me ramen~," he pleaded, his face vanishing from view as he let his head fall to the table.

"No," was the Uchiha's stout reply. "You're old enough to do it yourself. Besides, if you're going to train that much, it's your own fault."

"Are you kidding me?" Naruto grumbled, his voice muffled. "I'm trying to be the strongest in the village here, Sasuke, that doesn't happen overnight."

"Really? And who, pray tell, is currently capable of defeating you, O Mighty Nine-Tailed Hero?" Sasuke questioned sardonically.

"Watch the titles you throw around, Uchiha. This brat's only got my tails in his dreams. Literally," came the rumbling voice of Kurama, and Hermione could still scarcely believe that such a person – she tried not to think 'people', because it felt almost insensitive – could exist, and she wondered how it was kept so secret from the magical community.

"Kurama!" Naruto sounded scandalised as he shot up, and then there was some kind of internal argument, which, if his expression as his head descended back towards the table was any indication, Naruto had lost.

"Uh," Hermione tried awkwardly to make the conversation somewhat normal, "Why are you two so sweaty?" Ah, yes, a mundane topic.

"We went out to train a bit," Sasuke replied, rifling through the cupboards for something vaguely like breakfast.

The blonde scoffed. "Not like we got to do much. No forest _anywhere…_"

"What do forests have to do with it?" the witch asked curiously, recalling their previous complaints about the local geography.

"They grow back," the raven ninja quipped, suspiciously analysing a tin of spaghetti.

Naruto nodded, somewhat awkwardly given the way he chose to sit, and added to his friend's short answer, "After you blow them apart, that is. Buildings, not so much – that, and people don't tend to appreciate it."

Hermione decided that she really didn't want to know what exactly they considered 'training', and took another bite of her toast.

**xxxxxx**

"Die-a-what-now?"

"Diagon Alley, dear, we're going there to get the things for school. If there's anything you two need, you ought to get it while we're there."

"Yes, Ma'am!"

**xxxxxx**

"Must be some kind of nutter," Ron was muttering to himself.

"Ron!" Hermione chastised, "You're overreacting – "

" – just walked right in, didn't even think – "

" – not that weird, honestly – "

" – even Harry thought that Flooing was dangerous at first – "

"Oi!"

"Relax, Ronald, I'm sure that they've seen much more than Harry had when he was twelve, especially in their line of work – "

"You next, Ron, come on now," Mrs Weasley interrupted, beckoning him impatiently over to the grimy fireplace of number 12, Grimmauld Place's kitchen, through which Sasuke and Naruto had just vanished without complaint or protest.

Ninjas, Ron thought to himself, were far too casual with their lives – more so than was healthy. Complete and utter _nutters. _

**xxxxxx**

Naruto stumbled out of the fireplace at the Leaky Cauldron, unsteady on his feet, lungs full of smoke. He coughed into a fist, hastily brushing ash off of his clothes with his other hand. He'd borrowed some clothes from Harry – Sasuke had done the same, from Fred – as they were told that their own clothes were too obviously foreign. Naruto had chosen to wear a pair of plain blue jeans and some joggers, although the t-shirt he had on was his own; black, with a red spiral, he had deemed it close enough to what the wizards wore to be okay.

Sasuke, for his part, was dressed similarly, but with a black hoodie obscuring a black t-shirt. (His choice of clothing had left Naruto making jokes until he had, rather unceremoniously and without pretence, kicked him hard in the shin).

"Where – " cough, "where are we now?" Naruto wondered aloud, turning to Ginny, who had gone first as an example to the ignorant shinobi.

"The Leaky Cauldron," she answered brightly and confidently. "The entrance to Diagon Alley is here."

"Oh, cool," Naruto replied, peering around the pub full of witches and wizards unperturbed by their arrival as he ran his fingers gently through his hair, brushing the soot out of it. Sasuke's hair was suffering a similar fate, though his hair colour made it less noticeable, and Naruto chuckled quietly, reaching over to give him the same treatment.

"Oi," Sasuke griped, knocking the tanned hand away with a mild, barely visible pout, taking up the task himself. Naruto snickered, and Ginny blushed, looking away from the (in her opinion) adorably affectionate interaction.

"So where is – " the blonde started, but he cut himself as Ron tumbled out of the fireplace, long limbs unfurling. The twins, Harry and Hermione followed soon after, as well as Arthur and Molly Weasley, and then they were all sooty and milling around until Mrs Weasley took charge.

"Right then, this way, you lot, don't just stand around."

Eight witches and wizards and two shinobi filed out the back door.

**xxxxxx**

"Ah… that's a wall," Naruto said haltingly, gazing dumbfounded at the plain brick wall, located out the back of the Leaky Cauldron.

"We're all seeing a _wall, _aren't we?" he beseeched, looking around at everyone's faces – and of course, none of the wizards seemed perturbed by the impossibility of the situation, but Sasuke, to Naruto's relief, was looking suspiciously at it, eyes bleeding sharingan-red. His eyes shifted slightly to glance at his confused friend, and he gave Naruto a small nod.

"Oh, good," he sighed in relief. "I thought I might have been going crazy."

Ron gaped at him in disbelief. "_More _crazy, you mean. You already talk to yourself…"

Hermione elbowed him sharply in the side, and Ron resigned himself to his fate: to forever be at her mercy.

**xxxxxx**

The bricks of the wall were moving, undulating to provide a large archway through which they could pass at a single tap of Arthur's wand.

"Who-hoa," Naruto exclaimed happily, awed once more by the capabilities of wizards and delighted by it. He blindly bat at Sasuke with his hand, not willing to look away from the wall-slash-archway.

"Check it out, Sasuke! Do you see that? Do you reckon it's Earth Style, or - "

He was abruptly cut off by the hand of the subject of his prattling slapping over his mouth. So it was going to be one of _those _days, Sasuke thought, disgruntled.

**xxxxxx**

Diagon Alley was as busy as it usually was a few days before the start of a new term; it was mostly populated with young witches and wizards – dashing around in both robes and muggle clothing, chattering and excitedly eyeing window displays – and their exasperated parents trying desperately to keep them in line, and get the shopping done in reasonable time.

Through all of this, the shinobi were really making a certain scarred wizard nervous. Harry had, from the first moment that he saw them, crouching on his bed, been highly aware of what they were capable of – more so, it seemed to him, than anyone else at Grimmauld Place – yet he knew that he remained ignorant as to the extent of their power. This truly worried him; he knew already that they were extremely strong, but to think that it stretched further…

Even though they were assigned to protect Hogwarts, and Dumbledore trusted them, Harry was still wary. The affair with Moody in his previous year at Hogwarts had proven that Dumbledore could be tricked, and he still believed that Snape was not to be trusted further than you could throw him, so any argument as to their loyalty was already ruled out in his mind.

What bothered him perhaps more than anything was how incredibly _normal _they acted most of the time (inner monsters, crazy eyes and cloning aside). Naruto was friendly and often goofy; he seemed to be the type of person who anyone could easily become close with, excepting maybe Snape, though Harry had his doubts (Snape had once, in between being rude to Sirius and leaving, quirked his mouth into what might one day hope to be a smile when Naruto had inadvertently insulted Ron).

On the other hand, there was Sasuke, and Harry almost didn't know what to make of him. He outwardly appeared to have an almost dangerous personality, but when tempered with Naruto's frankly more down-to-earth nature, he relaxed; the signs of this were visible, the effect was so profound. His eyes would soften, the taut lines of his shoulders relax comfortable, as one settling down into their favourite chair after a long day of work, and his mouth, instead of slumping in irritation, brightened with quiet happiness (only a small amount of which, Harry theorised, was actually visible).

Presently Naruto was marvelling over the wondrous properties of broomsticks, whilst his darker friend tried, half-heartedly, to get him to be quiet, as he was drawing attention and _stop being so goddamn obvious, dobe. _

He looked at the back of these men who had gone through a war and come out victorious, and thought that perhaps they had a chance. Harry hoped, at the least, that he could live happily the way that they did once everything was over.

_What an interesting couple, indeed…_

**xxxxxx**

Molly ordained that she would buy all of the books (along with Arthur) in order for their children, Hermione, Harry and the ninjas to shop at their leisure. However, Naruto, on hearing that there were books available, exclaimed that he just _had _to go – to collect information for their mission, of course. (Really, he just wanted to find a book that explained magic well. The ones that Hermione had lent him, while being helpful on specific subjects, were vague at best as to how magic actually _worked_).

They hit a snag on the way there, though, when Arthur asked an innocent question –

"So, did you two get your money exchanged before you arrived?"

Naruto paled and froze mid-step. _No way, _he thought. _You've gotta be kidding, Grandma Tsunade! You really didn't think of that? Why didn't _I _think of that?!_

"I don't suppose there's a bank?"

Ah. At least he knew he could count on Sasuke.

**xxxxxx**

Naruto was eagerly rifling through various books in Flourish and Blotts once they had sorted their money out. While he did this, Mrs Weasley was asking the man at the counter for all of the books require for her children, Harry and Hermione for the year – which, frankly, was quite a lot – and the poor wizard looked torn between being exasperated at the sheer number of books he had to fetch and pleased by the sale that he was making.

This left Sasuke to do as he pleased, but he preferred to idle behind Naruto as the blond searched the volumes with vigour. He was growing to enjoy the experience of learning new things about his best friend, in part because most were pleasantly surprising. For example, one of Naruto's major faults was, in his book, was that he was too messy; yet he had a secret enjoyment in cleaning, as evidenced by the enthusiasm he showed when cleaning number twelve, Grimmauld Place out.

And here was yet another surprise: Naruto loved learning about new things. Of course, he had known this to some degree in the past, as the jinchuuriki was always enthusiastic about learning new techniques – but that was for the purpose of becoming stronger, and he seldom tried to figure things out by himself, preferring to nag Kakashi, Sakura and/or Sasuke until one of them laid it all out for him. That was before he had left, though, and since his return there was a significant change in Naruto's behaviour. To the rest of the village, it must have been a slow process, perhaps attributed to the natural process of maturation, but the blond's goofy side remained.

Lately he had been more serious, and could actively participate in intelligent conversation (Sasuke recalled thinking that such a thing was beyond him when they were younger). The Uchiha had been to his new apartment plenty of times, too, and there was more often than not several books and scrolls littered around the place. So he had clearly been taking a greater interest in learning during his absence.

As the blond read, a noticeable change came over him. His bright blue eyes skittered across the words on the page, taking them in as quickly as possible. When he didn't understand something, it was obvious by the way he gave a slight frown. In addition to this, he was unconsciously mouthing the words as he read them, pausing to stick his tongue between his teeth when he came across a diagram or picture.

To Sasuke, it really was quite remarkable to see Naruto, the world's greatest dobe, acting that way. In fact, he had wished, more than once, that the blond would be more studious; Naruto's strong will to avoid anything to do with reading when they were young was, to the Uchiha, one of his biggest faults.

Abruptly, Sasuke looked away. He _really _enjoyed that expression.

**xxxxxx**

"So, did you manage to find anything?" Hermione asked some time later. All of them, excluding Arthur and Molly, who were attempting to transport the mountain of books somewhere else, were sitting outside Florean Fortescue's ice cream parlour, the mid-morning sun beating down on them. The Hogwarts students had been doing their school shopping while the shinobi were book-hunting, and had bags from various stores piled at their feet.

Naruto shook his head sadly, sucking some – would you believe it – orange flavoured ice cream off of the little green plastic spoon that they gave you when you bought it. "Nah. Most of the books in there were like, "How to curse your enemies," and dumb stuff like that." He slumped forward, propping his head up on his left hand while pushing his ice cream around with his right. "You know," he continued, waving his spoon around for emphasis, "I'm starting to wonder if anyone _does _know. You can talk about how all the little bits and pieces work but you never say where it all _comes _from."

"Hang on," Ginny interrupted, confused. "Why does it even matter? I mean, would it even change anything if you _did _know?"

Hermione narrowed her eyes. "Well, I suppose not, but don't you find it odd that shinobi know precisely how their powers work, yet we have no idea? It seems awfully strange to me."

Ginny shrugged, agreeing easily but still somewhat unsure. "Yeah, I guess."

"Anyway," Naruto said with an air of great importance, straightening up. "I want to go to the Menaji-whatsit, Sasuke."

"You mean the Magical Menagerie?" Harry suggested, confused by the statement.

"That one," the blond replied, waving a hand flippantly as if the name didn't really matter. "I wanna get a cat!"

_Oh, hell no, _Sasuke thought.

"No," came to stoic reply. "You don't need one. It'll be a distraction," Sasuke frowned slightly. "Have you forgotten that we're here on a mission? That aside, it's not like you need another animal – you've already got all those toads and foxes running around your apartment because you're too damn soft to say no."

"But they have _blue _ones! Blue cats! Come on, Sasuke, you know blue is your favourite colour," Naruto pleaded hopefully.

"It doesn't matter what I think because you are _not _getting one."

For the ice cream, Naruto was thankful. He'd always been a bit of a comfort eater.

**xxxxxx**

Given that it was the thirty-first of August – the day before school resumed at Hogwarts – along with the fact that Diagon Alley was much closer to Kings Cross Station than Grimmauld Place meant that the mixed party of magic- and chakra-users opted to spend the night at the Leaky Cauldron to spare themselves the unnecessary travel.

Because of this, all those leaving for the school had packed everything that they needed for the year before they had left, and piled it all together in the living room at Grimmauld Place. No one was exactly sure how it had happened, but it had all been waiting for them in their respective rooms once they went back to the Leaky Cauldron.

As for the rooms, there had been a slight issue. There being so many of them along with the fact that it was the day before the new school year meant that they were forced to have two rooms with double beds and the rest with two singles each. One of the former went, of course, to Molly and Arthur, but the other was left up to debate.

Hermione was about to offer that she didn't mind sharing with Ginny, but she was cut off by the twins.

"What about Sasuke and Naruto? We've seen them sleeping together, haven't we George?" Fred said.

"That we have, Fred, and they looked pretty cosy to me," George continued.

Naruto shrugged casually. "Fine by me. It's not like we don't sleep together a lot."

Sasuke elbowed Naruto sharply in the ribs, disapproving of this statement.

"_Itai! _Come on, Sasuke, I didn't mean it like _that! _And it can't be worse than that one time that Kirigakure nukenin shredded your sleeping bag so we had to share mine – "

The Uchiha ended up agreeing just to shut everyone up, but the sly looks that the freckly twins were giving them bothered him greatly.

**xxxxxx**

During dinner that night, Sasuke broke his self-imposed mandatory stoic silence to ask an important question. "How exactly are we getting to Hogwarts?"

Naruto nodded enthusiastically, hastily swallowing a large mouthful of food. "Yeah, Grandma Tsunade never told us that."

Molly briefly detailed their journey; they would take a few taxis to Kings Cross Station, as Fudge refused to lend Arthur cars anymore due to the current political climate. From there, they would pass through the barrier between platforms nine and ten to access platform nine and three-quarters, where the Hogwarts Express would be waiting.

"Now, Dumbledore said that you two technically don't start work until you get to the school, but he'd still like you to keep an eye out on the train," Mrs Weasley added to Sasuke and Naruto.

"Yeah, sure," Naruto agreed easily, "I can just send out a few shadow clones, check for anyone dangerous using bijuu mode…" he muttered to himself.

"I'd tell you not to blow all your chakra before we even get there, but I seriously doubt that that will ever be a problem," Sasuke commented dryly.

"Oi, oi," Naruto pointed his fork at his friend, leaning the elbow of that arm on the table, "It's a gift and a curse, Sasuke. Do you know how many times Kurama's tried to hijack my body? Too many, ya know. And he's always being a jackass, like that one time when I met Yagura, that just wasn't nice…"

"Yagura?" Sasuke was confused. "Wasn't he the fourth Mizukage?"

"Yeah, but he was also the three-tails jinchuuriki so he was brought back by Madara," Naruto explained, turning his attention back to his food.

"Hn. What did Kurama say?"

"Ah, well… that's… he just pointed out that I'd only ever kissed you – which isn't even true, ya know, because I was with Gaara for a while, but he never counts Gaara because he hated Shukaku more than Madara," the blond said, studiously _not _looking at Sasuke.

_Hm_, Sasuke thought, _what is that look about…_

**xxxxxx**

Around nine-thirty that night, Naruto yawned widely, stretching his arms up above his head. The two shinobi had spent the remainder of the night reading and chatting quietly in their room, and he now felt the need to sleep.

"Hey, Sasuke," he said, the remnants of the yawn still audible in his voice, as he walked around the bed to where the Uchiha sat on a chair by the window, reading. The blond perched himself on the arm of the chair and threw his arm around his partner.

"You wanna hit the hay?" he asked when questioning obsidian eyes turned on him.

Sasuke considered it for a moment before nodding.

"Great," Naruto grinned toothily at him, jumping lightly off of the chair and began pulling his shirt over his head as he walked across the room. When they'd both stripped down to their boxers – that was how they preferred to sleep, having lived in the Hidden Leaf for so long, a village which is hot year-round – they climbed into bed and settled down. Naruto curled himself toward the middle of the bad, laying on his right side, and blue eyes fluttered shut.

"Dobe," Sasuke muttered quietly into the darkness, mirroring the Uzumaki's position.

"Hm?" Naruto cracked an eye open. "Yeah, what's up, Sasuke?"

"Tell me about Gaara," he said, looking away from his bed-mate in discomfort. The whole used-to-sleep-with-Gaara thing was bothering him for some reason, and he really didn't want to dwell too long on what that might mean. They were in dangerous territory already, and Sasuke was well and truly out of his comfort zone.

"What? Uh, okay… Well, I guess it started in the Chuunin Exams – you remember, I kicked his ass? Turns out he was 'eternally grateful' for having his butt handed to him on a plate – he said that it helped him deal with his rage and that after that he calmed down a lot," Naruto explained, his words carrying a slight sleepy slur.

"And then, uh, ya know, he became Kazekage, and he said that it was because of me – I'd changed him, or something. Hm… Oh!" he raised a finger as he suddenly remembered something. "Then he died! That's right!"

"Excuse me?" Sasuke asked, exasperated.

"No, really – the Akatsuki sucked Shukaku out of him and he died. That made me really mad, ya know, I even went to two tails fighting that blond girly dude. So, yeah, Gaara was one dead Kazekage, until Old Lady Chiyo and Sakura-chan caught up with us. Chiyo knew this jutsu that brings people back from the dead, only the person that uses it dies, so you have to want it pretty badly. So! Chiyo was bringing him back to life, but she was running out of chakra, since she'd just been in a huge fight, so I helped her bring Gaara back," Naruto was aware that he was rambling, but he was tired and couldn't bring himself to care.

He rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "Uh, so after we all got back to Suna, he, um, asked me out, I guess. Technically, I was 'an ambassador ensuring the Kazekage's quick recovery', but mostly we hung out when he wasn't doing paperwork and stuff. 'Course, I couldn't stay there forever, so he broke up with me, but we stayed in touch." Naruto frowned slightly, "I swear there was something else he never said, though… Ah, well. There you have it."

The blond snuggled back down and looked over at his friend, who was frowning slightly.

"What about you?" Sasuke asked, lying on his back and staring at the ceiling. "How did you feel?" he added softly. _God, _this was _so _not like him, to get so personal, but – well, he was better off not thinking about it and pretending like nothing had happened afterward.

"Me? Well, happy, ya know? I dunno if you've noticed, Sasuke, but there wasn't always thousands of people who respected me." He rolled over, hands behind his head, and joined Sasuke's watch on the ceiling. "Gaara understood me like no one ever had. You can't imagine what that meant to me – or maybe you can, I can never figure out what happens in your head. We could empathise with each other, and I think that was what really brought us together."

The ceiling, had it been animate, would have been very uncomfortable with the way that the Uchiha was frowning at it.

"Do you miss him?" He was almost afraid of the answer; what if Naruto decided to live in Suna for Gaara? No – that was dumb, and so was Sasuke for considering it – Naruto was devoted to the Leaf, and those closest to him lived there.

Sasuke tried to ignore the fact that, currently, he was the one that knew Naruto the most intimately.

"No – well, yes and no. I miss the feelings I had during that time, for sure, and I miss Gaara, because he's a great person, but I don't exactly miss being together with him. Mah, that sounds mean, but I don't know how to put it. It always felt like something was off between us, but I've never been able to tell what. What's with all the questions, anyway, Sasuke? You're not getting jealous, are you?" Naruto teased, ruffling Sasuke's soft hair that blended with the darkness around them.

Sasuke swatted the jinchuuriki away from his hair, trying to ignore the heat he felt rise into his face while being grateful for the lack of light in the room.

"Usuratonkachi," he muttered, "Only in your dreams."

Naruto laughed happily. "How did you know?"

Abandoning his embarrassment, Sasuke joined him in the land of humour and ignorance. "Oh, like you're not obvious. 'Don't leave, Sasuke!' 'Come back to the village, Sasuke!' Honestly, you're so needy."

"Shut it, teme," Naruto chuckled. "Come on, you need your beauty sleep. Can't let your gorgeous mug get ruined."

Sasuke snorted. "Speak for yourself, dobe."

He wondered how long he could pretend they had a normal friendship for before he did anything about it.

**xxxxxx**

_Translation notes:_

_Itai – ow, ouch_

_Kirigakure – Hidden Mist_

_Nukenin – missing ninja, rogue ninja_

_Bijuu mode – tailed beast mode_

_OKAY SO I HAD THIS ALMOST FINISHED WHEN MY LAPTOP SHUT ITSELF DOWN AND FOR SOME REASON AUTOSAVE HAD GIVEN UP ON LIFE SO I LOST OVER 2000 WORDS AND I HAD TO REWRITE IT WHICH SUCKED MAJOR DICK SO IM SORRY ITS SO LATE AND STUFF PLEASE DON'T ABANDON ME_

_apparently these losers like pillow talk – i felt like i owed you guys (and Sasuke) and explanation of where the narugaa can in but this is as far as it will go it's a sasunarusasu story do not be fooled by naysayers_

_tell me what you think pretty please it'll help me write better and faster_


End file.
